The Irregular Malfoy Gene
by Grangermalfoy1
Summary: A Malfoy with the veela gene has been popping up irregularly in their bloodline since the 17th century. Draco Malfoy is one of the rare male veelas, and has until his 18th birthday to find his mate, and convince her to be his, forever. Finding her won't be the problem for this particular veela, it's convincing the stubborn witch to accept him that's going to be the hard part!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Hi! So I enjoyed writing Dramione so much that I'm back again! If you have any prompts, perhaps give me a message on Tumblr (my username is MalfoyGranger1) and if I like your prompt, I'll have a go at writing it!

Review, if you want! I'm new at this, so any feedback is very appreciated. xx

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 ** _Chapter One_**

 _August 9_ _th_ _–_ _Summer before the start of 7_ _th_ _year._

"A veela?" Draco said to his father, his tone of voice void of any emotion. His face screwed up at the idea, "I'm a veela. A fucking veela", he laughed to himself, despite not finding the situation funny at all. Fucking fabulous, he thought, absolutely fucking fabulous.

"Yes, Draco, that is what I said", the older Malfoy said slowly to his son, aware that what he had just been told was something that was going to change his son's life forever. "An ancestor of ours, Alaisdair Malfoy, married a veela sometime in the 17th century. The gene has popped up irregularly over the years since then", Lucius paused, looking his heir in the eye, "Your mother and I", Lucius said, gesturing between himself and his wife, who stood next to him, "thought it had passed you, too, hence the reason that you're only being told now."

Hope bloomed in Draco's chest, for how would they know if he were a veela or not? Although he didn't know much about the species, he knew enough to know that once they reached maturity, the age of 17, which Draco had done some months earlier, they found a mate. At least, that was what he remembered learning at school when they had briefly learnt about the creatures. He explained this to his parents, but at the look on the older man's face, one of pity, he stopped talking.

"You don't sleep through the night anymore, Draco", his mother said softly, capturing Draco's attention, causing him to look her way, "you barely finish a meal, and your mood swings are awful", Narcissa looked up at her husband, imploring him to tell their only son what this meant for him, what it meant for the future of the Malfoy's.

Lucius sighed, looking up from his wife to his son, "what your mother is trying to say is that these are all things that happen when a Veela has yet to locate his mate, if you don't find her by your 18th birthday, you'll die." Both parents kept their eyes on their son, waiting for the realisation to dawn on him.

Draco's thoughts were flying around his head like a thousand snitch's evading capture from the seeker, in this case, Draco couldn't decide what thought train to follow. Veela? Mate? Death? His mouth opened and closed, unsure of what to say. "I'm a half-breed. For all you rambled on about blood purity, father, and we're tainted by the blood of a fucking creature", he snarled, taking the news he had just received out on his father, despite the fact that this was Great-Great whatever Grandfather Alaisdair's fault for marrying bloody a harpy, _Merlin!_.

"No, Draco!", Lucius sneered at his son, "veelas are _not_ considered impure!", he tutted at his son, pulling out his wand and summoning a few books that lay nearby on the table. "Read these", he demanded, "if you have any questions once you've read them all, ask me or your mother", turning around, Lucius stalked out of the room, frustrated and insulted at being accused of being _impure._

Narcissa approached her son slowly, "you'll be okay, darling", she smiled softly, "once you've found her, all will be well. Just think", she told him, "someone made _just for you_ , she'll be perfect for you, and you her. Not everyone gets that, consider yourself lucky. Whoever she is, she'll be just what you need", Narcissa paused, considering her next words, "Just what this family needs". The mother reached up to her taller son and gave him a small peck on the cheek, smiled at him comfortingly, and left the room to allow her son to begin reading about his heritage.

Consider myself lucky? Draco scoffed to himself, yeah right. He gazed down at the books in his arms, sat down, and began reading.

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 ** _Veela's are beings of breathtaking beauty, usually with white-blond hair. They have the ability to entrance the opposite sex by releasing pheromones into the air around them, affecting how the opposite sex behaves. When angered, female veelas transform into a less pleasant looking appearance, with their nose lengthening to appear like a beak. Male veela, although extremely rare, do exist. When they're angered, instead of transforming to appear as a bird, they sprout wings. These wings will also sprout when they complete the mating ceremony with their mate._**

 ** _Another difference between the male and female veela is that females, unless full veela, are able to choose their life-mate. Males, however, do not. Although, the mate of a male veela is considered to be the soulmate of the veela, and if the veela can persuade the mate to accept the life bond, they tend to live long and happy lives._**

Draco slammed the book closed, took a deep breath and called for Mitzy, his house-elf to fetch him a glass of firewhiskey, which the elf did quickly, earning herself a mumbled, 'thanks', from her master. Draco sipped his firewhiskey, knowing fully well that if his mother caught him nursing a glass like he was, he'd likely be in trouble, but deciding to do it anyway.

Wings, Draco thought, I'm going to have wings. To make matters worse, I'm going to bloody die if I can't convince whoever my _mate_ is to accept the bloody bond! Typical, all those times I teased my classmates, like Granger, for not being pure, and now I'm the impure one. The half-breed. No better than that oaf, Hagrid. Fucking fabulous.

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 _September 1_ _st_ _–_ _Beginning of 7_ _th_ _year._

"You'll know her when you see her, darling", Narcissa told her son as the three Malfoy's walked along platform 9 ¾ toward the Hogwarts Express, which would take him to school. His mother had been fussing over him since he had been told about his veela heritage, whilst his father hadn't spoken much about it. If he were being honest, Draco was relieved to be getting back to Hogwarts, where nobody knew about the veela part of him, and where he wouldn't be faced with his fathers worried glances and his mother's insistence on talking about how he was coping. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was very likely that his mate was going to be there. Nothing at all.

"Yes mother, I do know", he sighed, "my veela instincts will notify me as soon as my veela becomes aware of her", Draco's eyes scanned the platform, searching for his friends, and when he saw Potter and Weasley, he sneered at the two idiots, and then carried on looking for his friends.

"Malfoy!" he heard the distinct voice of one of his best friends call, causing him to spin around and see the three friends he had known for as long as he could remember, Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. He kissed his mother's cheek and shook his father's hand, and after a reminder to owl them should he need anything, or should he find his mate, he made his way over to the three Slytherins stood waiting to board the train with him.

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He had zoned out whilst Pansy was telling everyone who would listen about her most recent shopping trip to Paris when he smelt it. The smell that brought his veela to the surface for the first time. It was a bizarre feeling, almost as if there was another person inside of him, although the books explained that this was not the case, the veela and he were one. He was alert suddenly, which caught the attention of Nott, who was sat right next to him. "You alright, Malfoy?" asked Theo, a concerned expression on his face.

Draco turned to face his friend, "yeah, fine. I'll be right back", he got up and walked down the train, following the scent of strawberries. In the back of his mind, he was aware that this scent was probably the smell of his mate's shampoo or body wash, not her natural scent, but it was still the most appealing thing he had ever smelt. He let his nose and improved sense of smell lead the way, and because he was not paying attention to his surroundings, bumped into someone.

"Oh!", exclaimed the dreamy voice, "You weren't paying attention of where you were going, Draco! That's not like you, the nargles must have got to you. Lucky for you, I know just the remedy", Luna Lovegood smiled vacantly up at him, and was just about to tell Draco the remedy, when he cut her off.

"I don't need a bloody remedy because those ridiculous creatures are made up", he sneered at the Ravenclaw, annoyed that he had been interrupted on his quest to find that mouth-watering scent, "now, get out of my way, Loony Lovegood", it was then that he heard footsteps behind him, and was hit with the very scent that had awoken his veela and caused him to come searching for, although it was much stronger now.

"Gods, Malfoy! Must you be so rude?" Hermione Granger said, sticking up for her friend, although said friend didn't seem so bothered, and was still smiling her dreamy smile. Granger turned to Luna to see if she was alright, when he realised where the smell of strawberries was coming from.

Granger.

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Reviews would be nice!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Thank you so much to those who have reviewed/favourited, it means so much, and your feedback is very helpful! ? I'm still not 100% sure where I'm going with this story, but I will definitely keep writing it! Writing veela!Draco is almost as fun as reading him! This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous! Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and please review, if you want.

 **Chapter 2**

The scent of strawberries, the scent of _his mate_ , was coming from Granger. If Draco had been in complete control, and his veela wasn't bubbling at the surface due to the presence of his mate, he would've laughed. Or cried. Draco couldn't take his eyes of the muggle-born witch, and didn't notice Theo Nott until he was right beside him. "Draco, are you sure you're alright?" he asked his friend quietly, observing the way that the blond wizard had his eyes trained on Granger. "You rushed out pretty quickly", he said in explanation for why he had followed him.

Draco didn't immediately reply, still focused on the way Granger was fussing over Loony Lovegood, but when he did, all he said was a curt, "yes", and turned toward his friend, and then back to Granger. His mate. When Theo saw Draco's eyes, his own eyes widened, "Fuck, Draco! Your eyes!" he hissed, trying not to draw the attention of the two witches stood nearby. Draco's eyes had changed colour, they were a silver colour, and looked although they ought to belong to some type of demon, not his best mate!

Theo mentioning his eyes snapped Draco out of his daze, but did not send the veela in him away. It was then he remembered a passage from one of the books that his father had given him.

 ** _When a male veela is in the presence of his mate, or angered, his eyes may change colour. The colour depends on the situation. The veela's eyes will change to a pitch black colour when angered, or when his mate is in danger. In the presence of his mate, they'll change to a silver colour. Overtime, when the veela has become used to having his mate around him, his eye colour will be something that gets easier to control._**

As much as Draco would like to say he was angry right now, because of who his mate was, he couldn't. That meant his eyes were currently a silver colour, and he needed to leave before someone else realised it, and associated it with a trait of a veela. If anyone could, it would be Granger. As much as the witch irritated Draco, he couldn't deny that she was incredibly smart. As he thought about her intelligence, he felt a sense of pride well up in him, coming from the veela. He smiled to himself, of course his mate would be bright, he knew fully well that he would never have been satisfied with a docile partner to spend his whole life with.

Theo looked incredulously at Draco, who currently was staring at Granger, who was staring back with a confused and slightly worried expression on her face. The blond Slytherin had a vacant expression on his face, a satisfied grin and silver eyes. Theo looked at Granger, "sorry, Blaise thought it would be funny to spike Malfoy's drink, he's been acting odd since", he lied, covering for Draco. Although the Gryffindor didn't look as if she believed him, she just pursed her lips and nodded, "Come, Luna", she said, "Let's go find Harry and Ron."

At the sound of her voice, Draco closed his eyes and let out a small noise that sounded awfully like a purr. Luckily, thought Theo, Granger and Lovegood didn't hear. He grabbed the sleeve of his best mate, and pulled him into an empty compartment with the intention of getting an explanation.

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The slamming of the compartment door, and the absence of Granger sent the veela back to sleep, and Draco back into full control.

" _What_ ", Theo began, "was _that_ about?" he hissed, trying to put all the pieces together, but coming up with nothing other than Draco had lost the plot, gone around the bend, gone insane.

Draco sat down on one of the seats, going over everything that had occurred in the last five minutes, and coming to the realisation that his mate was not only a know-it-all muggle-born, but was never, _ever_ going to accept spending the rest of her life with him. "Shit."

"Explain, Malfoy!", the brunette wizard demanded, becoming increasingly frustrated. Well, he thought to himself, at least the demon eyes have gone, having realised that Draco's usually grey colour had reappeared.

Draco considered lying, making up some story about how he had ingested a potion, or how Granger had hexed him before Theo got there, but he found he couldn't bring himself to lie about Granger, about his mate. He also trusted Theo, and knew he wouldn't rush around to spread the rumor. So, he told him about Alaisdair Malfoy and about the irregular Malfoy gene, and about how he had just located his mate.

"Gods," Theo breathed, "Granger! Malfoy, she _hates_ you, she'll never accept spending her life with you!" Although this was something that Draco was aware of, it didn't stop the anger from bubbling up within him, and a quiet growl escaping him due to the veela not liking what the other boy was saying. His eyes had changed to the pitch black that the book explained, and by the look on Theo's face, they were pretty terrifying.

"Malfoy," Theo paused, looking for the right words to say, realising that what had just come out of his mouth was obviously going to anger and offend an unmated veela, and cursing himself for saying it, "Draco, I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that she's going to be hard to convince."

The veelas eyes narrowed, but the darkness seemed to be fading out of them, prompting Theo to continue, "But if anyone can convince her, it's you", he smiled in a way he hoped was encouraging. Draco's eyes returned to normal, "sorry," he muttered in apology to Theo as he put his head in his hands and lent on his knees. "Anyone would have been easier to convince than Granger," he groaned, causing Theo to chuckle bitterly, "you've got that right, Malfoy. What are you going to do?" Theo asked.

Draco looked up at him, "The only thing I can if I don't want to die on my 18th birthday," he paused, "convince her to accept the bond and spend the rest of her life with one person, me."

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Hope you liked it! There may be another update in a few hours ?


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Hello, I hope everyone is having a nice Sunday! Here is the next chapter ?

 **Chapter 3**

The new first years had just been sorted into the houses they would spend their whole time at Hogwarts in, and the Great Feast was starting. Hermione Granger, however, couldn't bring herself to enjoy it as much as she usually did. All she could think about was how strange Malfoy had acted on the train. She had given him a bit of a telling off for being nasty to Luna, and instead of the argument she had expected in return for him, _he_ started acting loony, grinning at her... and the eyes! So, strange, she thought, as she began eating. Theo Nott had told her it was some kind of potion, of course, but she couldn't bring herself to believe him.

"Mione," the voice of one of her best friends, Ron Weasley, who was sat two seats to her left, said, prompting her to look up from her plate and at him instead, "Malfoy is staring at you!" he hissed, glaring at the blond who was sat on the other side of the Great Hall, although Malfoy didn't realise this, as his eyes, as Ron had claimed, were fixed on her. When their eyes locked, he grinned at her, although it wasn't his usual grin that held promises of maliciousness, it was instead a happy, satisfied one, and Hermione couldn't deny that it was rather beautiful. His stare became intense, and the Gryffindor felt her cheeks becoming warm as she blushed, and found that she couldn't look away, that was until Ron reached over and shook her out of the daze she was in.

"Bloody hell, what do you think he's planning?" he said, looking at Hermione in concern. Hermione shrugged, "I don't know, Ronald," she answered, her eyebrows furrowing together as she thought about it. She looked back at the Slytherin table just in time to Malfoy not staring at her anymore, but instead glaring at Ron. Nott then whacked Malfoy on the arm, whispered something to him, and the two boys got up to leave. Hermione's eyes followed the two Slytherin's as they made their way out, and just as they reached the door, Malfoy turned around and smirked at Hermione.

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When the two boys made it back to the Slytherin common room, it was empty due to everyone being at the Great Feast, however, they carried on walking in silence up to the boy's dormitory. "You need to be more careful," Theo warned his friend as they closed the door, "You can't just start _staring_ at Granger, she'll think you're weird!" he exclaimed.

Draco sat on his bed and sighed, "Couldn't help it," he muttered. He thought back to the Great Hall, and how Granger had been unable to look away. Then he thought about her pretty blush when he smirked at her on the way out, chuckled to himself.

"I really don't know what you're finding amusing about this," Theo stated, "and bloody hell, mate! You looked like you were about to tear Weasley apart, limb from limb!" the stare that Weasley had earned himself for shaking Granger had been worse than the one Theo had gotten on the train for stating the truth, Theo shook his head, "you need to be careful. Granger's _smart_ , if you keep it up she'll figure out what you are _before_ you want her to know."

When Theo mentioned Weasley, Draco had to refrain from growling. It had been common knowledge for a while now that the two Gryffindor's fancied each other, but both were too scared to do anything about it. Their feelings for each other was obviously the reason why his veela reacted the way it did to them touching, as on the way up from the train, Neville Longbottom had grabbed Granger's arm as she nearly tripped, and instead of wanting to seriously injure Longbottom, he had been thankful that he prevented his mate from being hurt.

"I know, Nott", Draco said in reply to Theo's comment about being careful. "I don't even know what to do about telling her!" the blond boy ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "the way I see it, I have two options. I can tell her straight away, and pray to Merlin that her bleeding Gryffindor heart accepts me and lets me gnaw on her bloody shoulder," Theo's face paled a bit at this, "or I can attempt to get closer to her, and when I feel the time is right, I'll tell her," Draco stood up and began pacing around the room. He was muttering to himself, "I always have the pheromones… I'm pretty charming, naturally… Bullied her for years… All the times I called her a Mudblood…," the guilt he felt was unimaginable, "Fuck," Draco cursed.

"Wait… You have to", Theo paused, and screwed his face up in obvious distaste, "gnaw on her… shoulder? That… That's barbaric!" he exclaimed.

Draco stopped pacing and looked at his distressed friend and smirked, "veela's mark their mates", he said to explain, a thoughtful look graced his handsome face and he smirked sinfully "I do imagine I'll rather enjoy that part, if I ever get there." Draco walked over to his trunk, pulled out the books on his species and handed them to Theo, "Look in the first book, page 358." He had brought the books with him to Hogwarts despite having read and re-read them numerous times as he knew that they were a rare kind, and the best kind, and he wanted to ensure that whoever his mate was, she knew exactly what she was getting herself into. Considering his mate was a well-known bookworm and know-it-all, he thought bringing them had been a brilliant idea, and one she would appreciate when he told her about their situation.

Theo opened the first book to the page that Draco had instructed, and began to read the passage.

 ** _Veelas are extremely possessive creatures, and mark what they consider theirs. The marking will take place in the mating ceremony, and is something that will be pleasurable for both the mate and the veela. The veela decides where the mark will be, and although most fantasize about the ceremony, they won't know exactly where they mark their mates. Known places are the shoulder, inner thighs and neck. However, other body parts of a mate have been known to carry the mark of their veela, too. For more information on the mating ceremony, turn to page 423._**

Theo finished reading and looked up at Draco, who was staring at him. "Granger _will not_ like being marked, you know that, right?" It was known that Granger was an extremely independent person. It was rumored that her very brief relationship with the famous seeker, Viktor Krum, had fallen apart because he demanded she wear a necklace that showed the world she was his. If she hadn't liked that, how was she going to feel about bearing a bite mark that showed she was Draco's?

Draco felt the anger of his veela welling up in him at Theo's words. Of course, she would want to have his mark, they were made for each other! She would be his, and in return, he would be hers, and would give her whatever she desired. As the veelas thoughts began taking over, imagining the mating ceremony, and how his beautiful mate would look with his mark, his anger was quickly forgotten. Theo slamming the book closed snapped him out of those thoughts, and he quickly became disgusted with himself. This was Granger, _he hated_ her a few months ago. She hated him _now_! "I don't know what I'm going to _do!_ " Draco groaned.

"Well", Theo began, "In terms of how you approach Granger, you should definitely try the second option. I can't imagine the first working out too well", he chuckled, imaging how Granger would react.

"Yeah," replied Draco, "I can have Snape set us up as partners in potions, that could be my way in," maybe Snape will agree to setting some homework we must do with our partners, that way I can spend time with her outside of lesson too, he smiled to himself at this thought. Merlin, these mood swings are going to be the death of me! Well, he thought bitterly, that is if Granger doesn't off me first.

Theo nodded at Draco, "Right, well I'm going back down to the Great Hall. I trust you'll be okay alone?" he asked.

"Gods, Theo! I'm a veela, not a bloody toddler!" he said in reply, "Now, get out of here. I need to write to mother and father and tell them that I'm either going to die, or their future daughter-in-law is a muggleborn witch, and Scarface's best friend."

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Back in the Great Hall, Hermione was half engaged in a conversation with her friends. Half engaged, because every few minutes, she would turn back to the door, curious to where Nott and Malfoy had gone, and why. Just as she turned around for the 8th time, Nott walked through the door. She tried looking around him to see if Malfoy was following behind, but he wasn't there, so she looked back at Nott, who had stopped walking and was staring right at her. He smirked at her knowingly, winked, and walked to the Slytherin table to join Parkinson and Zabini.

Hermione blushed, and turned back to her friends, but her thoughts remained about Malfoy. As she thought about him and how nice he had looked grinning at her earlier, her cheeks grew warmer, and it was not until Ginny nudged her that she realised she had been staring straight at Ron. "Alright, Mione?" Ron grinned boyishly at her, obviously having thought she was staring _at_ him, not _through_ him, like she really was.

"Er, yeah. Sorry," she muttered, looking back to the Slytherin table, her eyes falling on Nott, who was looking at her with raised eyebrows.

Weasley's lucky, Theo thought, that Draco stayed up in the Slytherin dorms. He snorted to himself, causing Pansy to hit him on the arm, because 'that's rude, Theodore! We're at a dinner table'. Draco is definitely going to have his work cut out for him with Granger, he thought, rubbing his throbbing arm. "Gods, Pans. You hit like a half-giant!" Theo exclaimed, and Zabini laughed and said, "Idiot," as Pansy delivered another punch to his arm. At least Draco's mate isn't Pansy, he'd be black and blue!

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Let me know what you think! xx


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

The sorting of the first years and the feast had been over for hours, yet Hermione Granger still lay awake in the Gryffindor girls dormitory as her dormmates slept. The reason that she couldn't sleep wasn't the usual reasons of her either staying up late reading a book, or preparing for the first day of term. No, this time, instead, it was Malfoy, and his weird behavior since boarding the Hogwarts Express earlier today. Well actually, yesterday, seeing as it was around 2am. I have _classes_ tomorrow morning, Hermione thought, annoyed with herself, I am going to be knackered. Lavender Brown snorted in her sleep from across the room, causing Hermione to look over at her and sneer, although Lavender didn't know this, as she was obviously asleep and therefore blissfully unaware that her fellow Gryffindor classmate was glaring at her from across the room. Hermione huffed, why should _she_ be the one peacefully asleep? The muggleborn witch sighed, and closed her eyes, attempting to finally get some sleep.

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Down in the dungeons of the castle, Draco Malfoy also lay awake in his bed, although this had been a regular occurrence for him since turning 17 the previous June. He had thought that finding out who his mate was might make it easier for him to sleep, but apparently not. All he and his veela could think about was her. He thought about different scenarios about their lives together, about the mating ceremony, about winning her over, and about making up for all of the years he treated her terribly just because of her blood. Something that she couldn't change. He also thought about his father's reaction to Granger being his mate. This would mean the end of the Malfoy's being purebloods, as any children he and Granger might have in the future would be half-bloods. This didn't bother him, blood purity had always been something that his father pressed on him, and he accepted because he wanted to be _just_ like his father, and make him proud. Not anymore, not for a while. Although he had used the racist slur, he hadn't really believed in all that blood purity crap in years, how could he, when people like Granger were the living contradictions to it? Draco took a deep breath, and rolled onto his side, intent on going to sleep.

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The next morning, Draco skipped breakfast in the Great Hall. Probably not the best idea, as he was running on about 2 hours of sleep, but he had potions with the Gryffindor's first, and needed to ask Snape to pair him with Granger. He knocked on the Potion Mater's classroom, and went in when Snape called him in.

"Morning, Godfather," he said to the professor, "I trust you're well?" he enquired.

Snape looked up at him from behind his desk and nodded. "I am. But you've not come to class early to ask about me, have you?" he said knowingly.

Draco grinned, "no, I'm afraid I haven't. I actually have a…" he paused, searching for the right word, "a request," he said to the man.

"A request, you say? Let's hear it then, Draco," replied Snape, putting down the book he had in his hands and focusing his attention on Draco, "What can I do for you?"

"I expect mother and father and informed you about my, ah, _condition,_ " Draco said, Snape was a close family friend, and Draco knew his mother and father would want someone that they trusted at Hogwarts for him should he need them. Snape nodded in confirmation, so Draco continued. "I discovered who my mate was last night," he told his Godfather, causing him to raise his eyebrows, "I was wondering if you would pair me with them in potions this year? To help me become closer to her."

"Yes, that seems reasonable," Snape agreed, although both knew that Snape would have probably done what Draco had required even if it had been unreasonable. "You'll have to tell me who she is, of course."

Draco still hadn't sent the letter to his parents off, as he was planning to do it after potions, when he had a free period, so of course Snape wouldn't know, they only one who did was Theo. "Of course," he swallowed and took a deep breath, "It's… it's Granger. Hermione Granger."

Snape raised his eyebrows again, "Miss Granger, you say?" he smirked, "your father will be pleased," he said. Snape thought it nothing more than what Lucius deserved, although he himself was guilty of blood prejudice, Lucius' whole life had been revolved around keeping his family name influential and his bloodline pure. Snape summoned the sheet that had this year's potions partners written on it, and switched the names around. Dean Thomas was now with Daphne Greengrass, and Draco Malfoy was now with Hermione Granger. "There. All done," Draco opened his mouth to thank him, but Snape cut him off.

"I have something for you," he said, opening a desk draw and handing Draco a bottle of purple liquid. "Your parents asked that I brew that for you, it will keep your eye colour, and hopefully your temper, under control around Miss Granger." Draco took the bottle, examined it, and then gulped it down. He felt no different, but nodded at the professor anyway.

"Thank you, Godfather," the blond said, just as students started to pile into the classroom and take their seats. Draco took the seat closest to him, knowing fully well that in a few minutes he would be sat right next to his mate. Well, he thought, let's see if this potion can keep my eye colour from changing. Theo sat down next to him, "Everything go alright?" he asked. Draco looked at him and smirked, "Of course."

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Five minutes into the lesson, Snape brought up the topic of potions partners. "As they do every year, the partners you have for this lesson are changing," he drawled, "As I read out your names, find your partner and take a seat."

"Pansy Parkinson and Seamus Finnigan, Harry Potter and Tracy Davis, Ronald Weasley and Lavender Brown, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass and Dean Thomas" the list carried on, calling out all of his classmate's names, and then Snape called out his own name, causing him to straighten up "… and Hermione Granger." Draco heard her sharp intake of breath as she was only sat a seat to the left behind him, and he turned around and smirked at her. This earned him a glare in retaliation, and her hand shot up.

Snape sighed, "Yes, what is it, Miss Granger?" he asked, and she stood and began talking, "Sir, you can't honestly expect us to work well together?" she asked, her face desperate, "You _know_ our history, we argue all-" Snape cut her off with a glare.

"I suppose I should have said this at the beginning of the class, but you're all 7th years now, I expected more maturity from you. Five points from Gryffindor," he grinned nastily as he heard the collective groans coming from said Gryffindor's, "there will be _absolutely_ no partner swapping. Find your seats, now," he barked.

Granger stayed where she was, and her stubbornness both annoyed and excited Draco. Annoyed, because he knew this wouldn't be easy, and excited, as when he finally won her over, it would be so _much_ more satisfying knowing that he had worked for her. His veela definitely hadn't liked it that she had asked to swap partners, probably wanted to work with Weasley, he sneered in his head. The potion Snape had given him was definitely working though, as it was just some frustration that he felt, not the usual anger, and nobody was looking at him fearfully, so his mate's presence hadn't changed his eye colour. He got up, made his way to Granger, and took a seat next to her.

"Hello, Granger," he said, smirking at the pretty witch. And now that he was properly staring at her, he could see that she was pretty. Exceptionally so. Before, he had never really paid her any attention, knowing that there was no point and she was out of bounds. Now, however, she wasn't.

"Malfoy." She said, stiffly, in reply.

He was about to say something to her, something about how he was going to enjoy working with her, but Snape began the lesson, and he knew that any disruptions would irritate both Granger and Snape. So, instead, he smiled at her and prepared to take notes on whatever Snape was rambling on about.

His smile threw Hermione off guard, _again._ I do wish he would stop that! She thought, glancing at him for a second, and then back to Snape at the front of the classroom. When the potions professor had called their names out, she had been sure that he would make a fuss, and being offended that he was expected to work with a _mudblood_. She had been surprised, when instead, he turned around and smirked at her. Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts by a high pitch giggle coming from her right. She turned to see who it was, and saw Lavender lightly swat Ron on the arm, she narrowed her eyes at the pair, and when Ron turned and saw Hermione staring, he shrugged the girl off and mouthed at Hermione, 'help me!' she laughed at this quietly, and shook her head as she felt her cheeks heating up.

The smile quickly dropped off her face, however, when she heard a growl come from Malfoy. Her head snapped around to look at him just in time to see him break his quill from clenching it so tightly, he was glaring at Ron with a murderous look on his face. "Malfoy?" she whispered softly, and he navigated his gaze to her, and the glare softened. She was about to ask him what was wrong when Snape realised they weren't paying attention.

"Is there something more interesting than my lesson, Miss Granger?" he sneered, and the whole class turned around to look at her.

Draco's veela was on edge, and his mate being uncomfortable made him even more so, so he decided to defend her, as any veela should for his mate. "Sorry, professor. Granger was just explaining something to me, is all." There were shocked faces around the room, but Draco could care less, all he cared about was the way Granger was staring at the side of his face, slightly disbelieving, but thankful.

"Very well," Snape said, and continued his lesson.

Draco saw Hermione writing out of the corner of his eye, and presumed she was taking notes, when she slid a bit of paper over to him. It read: _Thank you for that._ He felt his veela gust with pride from the recognition from his pretty mate. He wrote her back: _Don't thank me. ;)_ and passed it to her, he saw the heat rise up on her cheeks, and assumed that it was from the winky face. Knew it was a good idea to include that, he thought to himself, and gave himself a figurative pat on the back.

The lesson was uneventful from then on, and when it finished, Hermione rushed out of her seat and followed the two dunderheads into the crowd, causing Draco to lose sight of her.

He was approached by his three friends, who all shared the free period with him next. "Coming to the common room, Draco?" Pansy asked, inspecting her nails. Despite all of the rumors that flew around, he and Pansy had never been together. She was more of a sister to him, and definitely not like others perceived her to be. She was protective and understanding, and he knew that with the help of her, winning Granger over might be a bit easier. "No, afraid not, Pans. Got to deliver a letter to my parents in the owlery, I'll meet you all there," he said, and began to make his way to the owlery.

Once he was there, he borrowed a Hogwarts owl and sent the letter off. He smirked as he imagined his father reading the letter, and then turned around and began walking to the Slytherin common room, his thoughts full of Granger.

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Review, if you like! xx


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Updates may be slightly slower as weekdays are a lot busier for me, but I will try and get some posted! Reviews definitely motivate me to do that ;) I wasn't completely sure what I was going to do about the war in this story, as they're 7th years and I've not mentioned it. I've come to a decision that will be reveled in the chapter, it's a bit AU as I've ignored horcruxes completely, but in order for the story to progress the way I wanted, it had to be done. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but enjoy! Xx

 **Chapter 5**

By lunchtime, Hermione was exhausted. Early night tonight, she sighed to herself as she reached for some pumpkin juice from across the table. No staying up late analysing Malfoy's behavior, no, Hermione decided, tonight I will be in the land of dreams.

She sipped her pumpkin juice and looked across the table where Ron and Harry were sat conversing about their latest quidditch strategies. She thought about all they had been through, from petty arguments about suspicious broomsticks, to defeating Voldemort in 4th year. She looked at Harry, and smiled at how much happier he looked now that he was living with his Godfather, Sirius Black, and was finally forgiving himself for Cedric's untimely death by the hands of Voldemort on that terrible night where the dark wizard had been resurrected, and defeated.

She then looked at Ron and considered her feelings for him. She had been _sure_ that they would be together by now, but then that whole thing with Lavender Brown happened last year, and if Hermione was being honest, it had put her off a bit, he knew how she felt about him, and he completely disregarded her feelings, that was not the type of person she wanted to be with. Especially considering Lavender wasn't completely out of the picture yet.

Hermione swore she felt the air around her shift, so she looked up, confused, and over to the entrance to the Great Hall as Draco Malfoy swaggered in, a letter in his hand and the smirk that seemed to be permanently fixed on his handsome face. _Handsome?_ Hermione blushed, something that seemed to be happening regularly lately, and turned back to her lunch.

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Draco heard back from his parents in record time, he supposed they had been awaiting his letter for any updates, and therefore were ready to reply. He was pleased with their reply, and as he walked toward the Slytherin table, he made sure Theo knew it by grinning at him and waving the letter.

"Let's read it then," Theo said, reaching his hand out for the letter, pretty eager to see how Lucius Malfoy was going to react to his son being fated to a muggleborn witch. Draco handed him the letter, sat down, began eating and waited for his friend to finish reading.

Theo opened the letter, and began reading it.

 _Dear Draco,_

 _Your mother and I are pleased to hear that you have located your mate. While she is not what I had hoped for, your mother assures me that she will be what you need, and what our family need, and as you know, it is never my wish to anger your mother, so I will agree with her. Hermione Granger is what I suppose you could call the best, known as the brightest witch of her age, and despite her young age, is very influential. Her blood may not be favourable, but I understand that in order for you to live, she is what you need. It is because of that, that I give you my support. Any resources you may need in securing her as your life partner, do not hesitate to ask, and your mother and I will provide._

 _A Malfoy always gets the best,_

 _Father._

Theo tucked the letter back into the envelope, handed it to Draco and was silent for a minute before he said, "Reckon your mum had her wand to his neck as he wrote that?" Draco let out a small laugh at this, "Unexpected, isn't it?" he answered.

Before Theo could reply, Astoria Greengrass sauntered over, and sat directly opposite Draco, giving him a sultry grin. "What's in the letter, Draco?" she asked in a low voice. Draco sneered at the girl, not wanting anyone to find out his secret, "none of your business, Greengrass. Bugger off," Draco had obviously shocked the girl, as her mouth dropped open. She turned red in embarrassment, and scampered off to her friends, who were giggling up the table, having just watch what had happened. Pansy tutted at him, "that was rude, Draco," she said, although he could see she was amused. Pansy disliked Astoria, and had made it known to him, she was only telling him off because she felt that as the only girl in the group, it was her responsibility. He supposed Astoria had the right to be shocked, Draco had snogged her in a broom closet last year, and had been flirting with her since. He had a mate now, and she was all that he wanted. He was disgusted at himself for thinking something so soppy, but it was thoughts like that, that appeased his veela. Thinking of his mate, he looked up and watched her stand up, say something to her friends and walk out of the Great Hall. Bet she's off to the library, he thought, grinning. "You know what," he said, gaining the attention of his friends one more, "I need to borrow a book from the library, I'll see you all in Defense Against the Dark Arts," he told them as he stood up.

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Hermione was at her usual table, which was in a secluded part of the library, reading ahead for Transfiguration, when she heard the library doors open and close. She thought nothing of it, the library was somewhere people frequented often. It wasn't until someone sat down on her table, opposite her, that she looked up. She furrowed her eyebrows at who she saw, "Malfoy. What do you want?" she asked, confused. She looked around, and there were plenty of other places her could have sat, far away from her.

He didn't reply to her straight away, and was instead just staring at her. She squirmed in her seat, starting to become uncomfortable with his intense gaze, when he replied, "what do I want?" he took a deep breath and stretched out in his chair, "there are a lot of things I want, Granger?" he drawled, smirking sinfully at her. Her breath caught in her throat, and she swallowed.

"Well, if you don't mind, go get them somewhere else, will you? I am _trying_ to read," she looked back down at her book, intent on reading again. He didn't reply, but she could feel him staring at her, and as hard as she was trying, the words just weren't going in. She slammed her book down on the desk, stood up, and put her hands on her hips. "Malfoy," she hissed, " _won't_ you go somewhere else? You're distracting me!" She exclaimed, angrily.

Draco could tell she was angry, and the emotion excited both him, and his veela. He stayed sat down, and gazed up at her calmly, "distracting you? Granger, I'm just sitting here." He replied, watching her as she became more frustrated. He didn't have to worry about noise, as they were in a deserted part of the library. It pleased him when he walked in and found her somewhere that they would be alone.

"You're _staring_ at me!" Hermione spat at him, "I don't like it. I don't like _you._ Go away!"

Draco sucked in a breath of air at her words. Words that wouldn't have even bothered him a few months ago. Even though he knew that she had no lost love for him, it still hurt and angered the veela to hear his mate confirm it to him. He stood up and stalked over to her, her eyebrows furrowed in a way that he usually found endearing, but overlooked this time as he kept walking until she was pressed against the bookshelf with his arms caging her in. "You don't like me, Granger?" he hissed in a low voice.

Hermione was confused, she had said far worse things to him in the past, and he had never had that look on his face. At first, he had seemed crushed, before it was quickly replaced by a look of anger, and before she knew it, she was trapped between him and a book shelf, with her wand on the table. "You know that I don't, Malfoy! We hate each other, why are you-" she cut herself off with a gasp, his eyes were _changing colour_ , going dark!

"Well, we'll see about that, won't we?" he snarled as he began to lean forward. Hermione thought that he was going to kiss her, but someone called Malfoy's name, and his eyes turned back to their normal grey colour. He turned his attention to Nott, who had called him, and Zabini and Parkinson, who were stood behind him, looking confused. Me too, thought the Gryffindor, _me too!_

Hermione used this chance to dart around him, and put the table in between them. Malfoy looked torn between following after her, and seeing what it was that Theo wanted. "Quidditch training, Malfoy? We need to go, _now_." He demanded in a cold voice. Draco was breathing heavily, and his gaze snapped back and forth between Hermione and the three Slytherins, before he nodded at Theo, grabbed his bag and left.

"What the _bloody hell_ was _that_ about?" exclaimed Parkinson, Hermione saw Nott turn toward her and Zabini and whisper something, before he addressed her. "Granger," he said, "Sorry about that, the potion that Zabini gave him still isn't out of his system, obviously."

"Hey! I did not-" Blaise started, but was cut off by Pansy whacking his arm and hissing, "Shut up!"

Theo gave her one last look, and the three friends left the room, following after Draco, and leaving a very confused Granger, who didn't believe a word of what Nott was saying, and was determined to get to the bottom of it. Whatever it took. She waited a few minutes before packing up and going to class, planning on coming back to the library later to research. _Well_ , Hermione thought, there goes _my_ early night.

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Like I said, reviews motivate me to write ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Two chapters in one dayyyyyy. ;)

 **Chapter 6**

Classes were over, and Draco knew the minute he got back to the common room, Pansy and Blaise were going to drill him with questions. Theo wouldn't have told them anything, he was too loyal, a good quality, of course, but it might have been easier if Theo had just broken the news instead of Draco having to explain it all again. The blond sighed, running his hand through his hair and thought about the loss of control in the library. All Granger had done was say she didn't like him, and he had nearly blown his cover as a result. I wonder, he thought, if Snape is able to brew me a stronger potion? I'll have to ask him.

As soon as Draco walked into the common room, Pansy was on her feet, dragging him upstairs with Blaise and Theo trailing along behind. As they walked into the dormitories, Goyle was sat on his bed, doing Merlin knows what. Pansy glanced at him, looked him up and down and barked "Out!" Goyle was up and out in seconds. Draco looked at his two male friends and tried not to laugh, you'd think by the size of him that Goyle wouldn't be intimidated by someone as little as Pansy.

She turned to him, "You need to tell us what is going on, Draco! That wanker," she said, pointing at Theo, "won't tell Blaise and I anything! Why did you have Hermione bloody Granger pressed up against a book case?" she yelled.

"That," drawled Blaise, "is something that I am interested in knowing, too. She didn't look too happy about being there, mate," he said, not noticing the look that Theo shot at him. A look that clearly said, 'keep your mouth shut!'

However, Blaise's statement didn't anger Draco. It unsettled his veela somewhat, but Draco was able to ignore it. He looked at his two clueless friends, "I'm a veela. Granger's my mate. No choice in the matter, if I don't claim her by my 18th birthday, I'll die," he said, bluntly.

Niether said anything for a few minutes, at least, before Blaise said, "and why has Theo been telling Granger I've been spiking you with potions?" Draco shrugged, and Theo made a small 'hmm' noise, "needed to cover for Draco when he was acting barmy," Blaise nodded in understanding.

"What if…" Pansy began, "what if she won't willingly accept you?" she asked, already half knowing the answer, but hoping she was wrong.

"I die. I can't force her, my veela wouldn't allow me too, even if I wanted it," he said, his face void of any emotion. The silence in the room was deafening, until Pansy spoke again, determination in her voice, "we convince her then. What's our plan?"

Draco grinned at the dark-haired girl, and the three Slytherin's began plotting how they would ensnare the brightest witch of her age.

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The minute classes were over, Hermione rushed off to the library to begin her research. It was hours before she found anything. She began skimming through a book on veelas, but discarded it once it mentioned that they were female, Malfoy _definitely_ was not female. Before she knew it, it was 8pm and the librarian was kicking her out of the library, nevermind that she was Head Girl. Apparently even the Head Girl had to leave the library at some point. She began the walk back from the library when she heard Ron shouting her name, "Mione! Mione," he huffed, running after her, "Wait up!" she stopped walking and waited for him.

"Evening, Ronald." She said, smiling at his messy ginger hair and cheeks that were red from running. "How are you? Where is Harry?" she asked, peering behind him, looking for their best friend who was usually trailing not too far behind.

"Oh, err," Ron scratched his head, "He's… somewhere. Actually, I wanted to talk to you, ask you something," he grinned at her. She nodded, and waited for his question. She had a sneaking suspicious she knew what he was going to ask, but every time she had thought the same in the past, he had always asked for help with homework, or something, so Hermione didn't think into it.

"I was wondering", he paused, licking his lips as they had gone dry all of a sudden, "Well… there's Hogsmeade this weekend, as you know," she nodded, and felt her heartbeat increase, "of course you know, you're Head Girl, you bloody arranged it," he muttered to himself, she could tell he was nervous, and wanted to help him along, but decided that he had to do this himself, after all, he could ask Lavender out with no help, so why not her? "as I said, I was- well, I was wondering if youwantedtocomewithmelikeonadate," he said, rather quickly. So quickly, that Hermione had no idea what he said. She was going to reply, when she heard the drawling voice of their potions professor.

"Now, what would two Gryffindors be doing out, so close to curfew?" he said, interrupting what he knew was Ronald Weasley _finally_ actually upon his feelings for Hermione Granger. _Such a pity_ , he thought, that that is not going to be happening, not if he could help it. His Godson would not be dying on his 18th birthday if he could help it.

Both students looked rather annoyed, but Granger replied politely anyway, "we were just on our way to the common room, sir, we'll go now," she said, grabbing Weasley's arm as if to drag him off.

"Not so fast, Granger," he said, knowing that if he left them alone, it was likely Weasley would carry on their previous conversation, "I have something to talk about with you." The boy was about to protest, but Snape stopped him, "Run along, Weasley," he sneered at the ginger.

Ron sulked off, and Hermione looked up at her professor. "What is it, sir?" she questioned, curious.

"The patrolling schedule needs amending, Draco Malfoy will have to swap with with Terry Boot. No questions, Miss Granger it is a personal matter that is not up for discussion." Replied Snape, who was awaiting her objections. Funnily enough, he didn't get any. He looked at the Gryffindor student, saw the blush upon her cheeks, and smirked to himself.

"Will that be all, Professor?" Hermione asked. He nodded, and turned around, his robes floating behind him as began his walk back to the dungeons.

As Hermione began her own walk back to her dorm, she thought about how Malfoy and she would be spending more time together, and it was all the doing of Snape. She wasn't stupid, and she knew something was going on. Maybe he fancies me, she thought to herself, quickly discarding the idea as preposterous and letting out a small giggle.

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The next week was uneventful, Draco didn't lose control or act oddly around his mate, and things were going back to normal. Stage one of their plan was in motion. Lull Granger into a false sense of security, and then slowly become friendlier. A compliment here and there, things like that.

At breakfast, Draco was watching his mate from across the Great Hall with a frown on his face. She was barely eating, just sipping on her drink with a thoughtful look on her face. He didn't want her becoming ill, he'd have to do something about her eating habits, he thought.

"Mate, you need to stop staring," Blaise whispered, giving him a nudge.

Draco nodded, "lets get to potions, shall we?" he said, prompting them all to get their things together and make their way to the classroom.

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Once they were there, Draco took his seat next to Granger. "Morning," he said, smiling politely at her. She gave him a small smile in greeting. Although it was small, it made Draco's stomach flutter and his veela extremely happy _. Merlin_ , I'm acting like a girl!

"Today's lesson, we will be brewing pepperup potion. Turn your text books to age 463 and begin. In pairs." The students all began grabbing everything they needed, and starting to brew their potions. He and Granger were ahead of the rest of the class and at the part where it was left to simmer for 10 minutes. They were both sat down waiting, when he broke the silence. "You need to start eating in the mornings."

His voice broke her out of the thought she was in, about Ron in the hallway last week. "I usually do, I have just had a lot on my mind lately," she said, confused. Why does he care?

His jaw clenched, "just… take care of yourself, will you?" at her nod of confirmation, he stood up an went to begin stirring the potion.

"No! It needs another 30 seconds to simmer, Malfoy!" she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling it away from the potion. At their touch, she felt something. Nothing major, but enough for her to not let his wrist drop. Draco grinned at her, "you look nice today," he said, and she dropped his wrist, blushed, again, and turned her attention back to the attention ignoring him. The smile didn't drop from his face until the end of the lesson. Granger stayed back, Draco heard he tell her friends she had something to discuss about the lesson with Snape, and he left.

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On the way to their next lesson, Draco and his friends were walking behind Potter and Weasley, and could hear their conversation. A conversation that Draco and his veela were not happy with.

"Harry, I bloody tried, okay?" Weasley groaned, and Draco rolled his eyes at the boy's pettiness, willing him to _just shut up_.

"You couldn't have tried hard enough! Hermione has liked you since 4th year," Draco sucked in a breath of air at this, and became tense, catching the attention of his friends, "if you had _tried_ , you would have taken her to Hogsmeade this weekend. _Maybe_ she'd even be your girlfriend!" Potter exclaimed.

Both Theo and Blaise acted quickly and grabbed his arms as his eyes turned pitch black and he went to lunge at the ginger boy. They pulled him into an empty classroom, Pansy scurrying in behind and performing a quick locking spell on the door. "Calm down!" she shouted, "he didn't ask her, they didn't go!"

Draco paced around the room, and felt an odd sensation on his back. _Wings_ , he thought, his anger quelling as he took deep breaths. I do not want to be sprouting wings, he told himself, _calm down_.

"Okay," he said slowly, his eyes going back to normal, "I'm calm, I'm calm," he repeated. "I fucking knew that Weasley would be a problem!" he shouted, "fucking knew it," he muttered again, under his breath.

"Malfoy, it's fine!" Theo said, trying to calm his friend. No matter what the blond said, Theo knew that he was _not_ calm.

"Well it's not fucking fine, is it, Nott?" he yelled, "Weasley has finally grown some balls, just at the right time, might I add, and he is going to ride off into the sunset with _my mate_ , marry her and pop out a whole bunch of mini Weasley's and mini Grangers!" Draco's pacing became quicker, and he let out a frustrated shout, "She's MINE!" as he picked up a chair and threw it across the room.

What the three slytherin's hadn't noticed was someone dismantle Pansy's quickly, and therefore poorly, thrown up locking charms, and enter the room due to all of the shouting and crashing coming from inside.

The veela's head snapped around as his mate's scent hit his nostrils, and he heard her voice.

"Malfoy?" Granger whispered.

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Review, please! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Sorry for the cliffhanger in the last chapter ;)

 **Chapter 7**

The veela's head snapped around as his mate's scent hit his nostrils, and he heard her voice.

"Malfoy?" Granger whispered.

Malfoy didn't reply, just stared at her intensely. His eyes were pitch black, like they were in the library. Everyone in the room was silent, not wanting to push Malfoy into one of his rage filled fits again.

"Someone," Hermione started, not taking her eyes of off Malfoy, "someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on!" her voice getting louder with each word as she became more and more frightened. Malfoy looked like a wild, his usually perfectly done hair ruffled up, his eyes feral and his breathing erratic. Yes, thought Hermione, he looks like an animal ready to _attack_.

Nobody answered her, so she slowly took her eyes off Malfoy and looked over to the three others in the room. This was obviously what the veela wanted, however, because as soon as she was distracted, he began walking toward her, and when Hermione looked back, he was standing right in front of her.

Draco and his veela could sense that his mate was uncomfortable, scared even, which was the only reason that he hadn't reached out and touched her. "Mine." He said to her in a low voice, her eyes crinkled, and she opened her mouth as if to say something, but shut it again. Her presence was definitely calming him, that was until he heard the voice of Theo, "Malfoy…" he said cautiously, causing Draco to let out a low growl. The growl had the opposite effect that he had wanted, however. Instead of just warning Nott to back off, it made his little mate's heartbeat speed up and her to try and back away from him. He furrowed his eyebrows, and made to grab her to pull her to him. This, he discovered, was a mistake.

It took the animalistic growl coming out of Malfoy's mouth and him attempting to grab her for her to realise that she had her wand. Stupid! She thought, and as soon as she saw his hand come up from the corner of her eye, she pulled it out, pointed at him and yelled, "stupefy!" Malfoy flew backward and away from her, and Hermione turned and ran from the room. She knew that she probably should have gone to a teacher, McGonagall, perhaps, to explain why she had just stupefied another student, but she had somewhere far more important to be. Hagrid's hut.

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"Get Snape, now!" Pansy said, rushing over to where Draco was lying on the floor, unconscious. Blaise rushed out of the same door Granger had just gone running out of after stupefying Granger. Pansy supposed that she couldn't really blame her, if Draco had been advancing on her looking like he did, she probably would have done the same.

Pansy checked Draco over to make sure he had no serious injuries, and then looked up to Theo as he began talking, "Granger is going to know. Our plan has just gone to shit!" Pansy nodded in agreement, but tried to remain positive, "well, we'll just have to come up with a new one then, won't we?" she smiled hopefully at him as Snape came charging through the door with Blaise closely behind.

Snape sighed, looking down at his Godson. "Tell all of Draco's teachers he has been excused from lessons. If you have any problems, send them to me. Get to class, all of you."

They listened to their Head of House, and went on their way, just before Blaise left the room, however, he turned to Snape, "do you think Draco is going to be alright, sir?" both knew that Blaise didn't mean would he recover from being stupefied, it was obvious that he would. No, Blaise was talking about Draco's _condition_. Snape took a deep breath, "I don't know, Zabini."

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Hermione was sat in Hagrid's hut, sipping on tea as Hagrid rambled on about Bowtruckles, and how he would just _love_ to have a few at Hogwarts to show off to his 1st years. "Completely harmless, mind you." Explained Hagrid, "But o' course, you knew that, not known as the smartest witch of 'er age for nothin', are ya?" Hagrid chuckled. When Hermione didn't join in, Hagrid sighed, "now, 'Ermione, what's wrong with you? Barely spoken a word since you got 'ere, you 'avent!"

Hermione put her tea down on the large table, and thought about what to say, "Hagrid, I have… a question for you" she told him, he nodded, encouraging her to continue. "Its about… Veela. Do you know much about them?" she asked.

"Not much more than you do, I reckon. Very private species, they are." He replied.

"and, err… do you know anything about… their gender?" she questioned, her words coming out slowly.

"Females." Hagrid said, "never 'eard of a male one." He told the witch.

"Right. Thanks," she said, beginning to think about where else she could get information from. It was silent for a minute or so, before Hermione thought, Fleur! She is a veela! She'll know if it's possible for a male to be one, too. Hermione smiled, "Why don't you tell me more about the bowtruckle, Hagrid? Awfully cute creatures, I must say."

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When Draco woke up, he was in Snape's office, laid on a bed which had obviously been transfigured from a chair, or something. "Godfather?" he said, when he saw Snape sat down at his desk. Snape stood up, grabbed something from his desk and made his way to Draco. "Here," he said, passing Draco a bottle, "it's the same potion. Only stronger. You can't lose control like you did today again."

It was then that Draco had remembered what happened. Weasley's conversation, the rage, throwing things around a room, his mate, Granger stupefying him. "Shit." He muttered. "She knows." He groaned.

"Most likely. Miss Granger is an intelligent individual." Snape said in an indifferent voice, although he was actually very worried for his Godson.

"I have rounds with her tonight." He stated, not knowing what he was going to do, and hoping that Snape would provide the answer.

"Well," began Snape, "you better figure out what you're going to say to the girl. Now, leave. I have essays to grade." He said, dismissing Draco.

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Hermione had written to Fleur, but knew that she probably wouldn't hear back for a few days. Fleur was a busy woman. She had rounds with Malfoy, she thought about asking someone to cover for her, but decided to go and just act oblivious, as if she believed that this was all the result of Blaise giving him some dodgy potion for a joke.

"Granger." A stiff voice said from behind her, she turned around, and there he was. As she looked at him, she ticked off the characteristics of a veela: extremely beautiful, white-blond hair, naturally charming and popular with the opposite sex. "I didn't think you'd be here tonight," he said.

She raised her eyebrows, "why ever not? I _am_ Head Girl, Malfoy."

Draco narrowed his eyes at her, just _what_ game was she playing? He wondered. "Earlier." He stated, his voice still not changing from the cold and stiff tone.

"Oh," she laughed, "don't worry about it," Draco's eyes widened at this, but she continued, "I know what it is like to be friends with pranksters, you might have heard of Fred and George Weasley," she smiled.

"Prank," Draco said, not a question, just a statement.

Hermione nodded, "A prank. Your friend, Nott, he told me about Zabini and the dodgy potion. I'm just sorry about stupefying you, do you forgive me?" she asked, making her voice and facial expression seem as innocent and clueless as possible.

Draco's veela was extremely happy at the apology from his mate, he wasn't going to _hurt_ her, he just wanted to stop her from running. He pushed those thoughts away, and with them, the veela, too. Draco smiled at her charmingly, "of course. You have _nothing_ to apologise for, you were scared, I understand."

"Great," Hermione said, "Let's get on with rounds then, shall we?" she suggested, and at his nod they began walking in silence. One very satisfied, and the other very intrigued.

Hermione gave herself a figurative pat on the back for her acting and deception. She took a quick glance at the tall boy walking next to her. You're not the only sneaky one, Draco Malfoy, she thought.

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About a week later, on a Saturday morning, Hermione sat at breakfast when the owls flew in and began delivering post to the students. One flew by, and dropped a single letter to her, and Hermione immediately knew what it was. She put her last bite of toast in her mouth, picked her letter up and left the Great Hall quickly to read it in privacy. She didn't, of course, feel the intense stare that followed her out of the room, and hurried out, blissfully unaware.

The Gryffindor girls dormitory was empty, her dorm mates at breakfast. She sat down on her bed and tore the envelope open, skimming the letter.

Fleur and her family were all doing well, and missed Hermione very much. She asked about Hermione's studies, and what she planned to do once she left Hogwarts. It was after this part that Hermione got to the part she wanted:

 _Yes, Hermione. There have been cases of male veela, I actually have a male cousin who carries the gene, his name is Antoine! If you're interested, I could pass along the many questions that I am sure you have to him, and see if he'll answer them for you. The male vela is almost unheard of due to how rare they are, so I know that there won't be many books on them, especially considering how private they are._

Hermione sucked in a breath of air at this. This, along with Malfoy's characteristics and his recent behavior towards her, was evidence. Malfoy is a veela, she thought to herself, and I'm nearly certain that I am his mate.

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! Xx


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Please do review! Like I said, reviews lead to more motivation to write ;)

 **Chapter 8**

After reading the letter, and writing Fleur a quick reply, Hermione flopped back onto her bed and took a deep breath. She recalled everything she already knew about veelas, but decided quickly that the information may be inaccurate. All she knew about was _female_ veelas. Hermione was aware that there was nothing in the Hogwarts library that was available to the students on male veela, but the _restricted section_? I bet there's a book or two in there that would prove useful, she thought to herself. It was Saturday, so she had the whole day free, so she decided to go to McGonagall and see if she could get a pass for the restricted section for a research project she was doing. McGonagall had never had a problem with it before.

Hermione shoved the letter from Fleur under her pillow, and left the Gryffindor Tower, on her way to find McGonagall and start what she knew would be a tiring, and research-filled day.

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Draco's eyes followed his mate as she walked out of the Great Hall, the letter she had just received clutched tight in her small hands. She seemed happy, and Draco's veela was satisfied with this. Theo, who was sat next to him, elbowed him in the ribs, causing Draco to turn to him with a sneer on his face, "what?" he hissed.

Theo shrugged, "you were staring, _again,_ " he explained, a hint of a smile on his face.

He heard Pansy let out a small laugh from across the table, "when isn't he staring at her?" she teased, making Blaise snort in amusement. He swears he saw Pansy's hand twitch on the table, trying to restrain herself from giving him a light whack for his manners. Last time she had done that to Blaise, he had snorted at everything she said for the next hour. She learnt her lesson, he thought with a grin.

"Has anything else happened? You know," Blaise asked, lowering his voice so nobody around would hear, "with Granger?"

Draco's smile slipped from his face, "no," he replied, his jaw clenching, "absolutely nothing. I try and start conversations with her in potions and on patrol, but…" the veela sighed, "she's completely disinterested." He took a bite of his toast and continued, "she looked rather happy a minute ago too, wonder if it's got anything to do with Weasley," he said, bitterly.

He heard Pansy suck in a breath of air from across the table, so he looked at her curiously, and his curiosity grew when Blaise let out a loud laugh, "Definitely not Weasley, mate," Blaise grinned.

Draco and Theo both looked confused, so Blaise went to elaborate, but Pansy slapped her hand over his mouth, and hissed, "you keep your mouth shut, Blaise Zabini!"

Blaise narrowed his eyes at his only female friend, and licked her hand, causing the girl to squeal, and pull her hand away from his mouth. "Just for that," he said, "I don't think I will!"

Pansy huffed, and crossed her arms over her chest, "fine. Tell them. It's only for Draco, anyway!"

Draco became even more intrigued then, completely forgetting about Weasley. "What is this about?" he asked.

"Well," drawled Blaise, "Pansy, dear, dear Pansy here," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, "has eliminated some of your competition."

Realisation dawned on both Draco and Theo. "No. Fucking. Way." Exclaimed Theo.

"Yes, fucking way!" Blaise smiled, "caught them in a broom cupboard 2 days ago."

Pansy groaned, "stop, all of you! I thought with Weasley out of the way, Granger would start focusing on you more, Draco. You haven't seen the way she stares at you sometimes. I was trying to help you."

He hadn't seen his mate's stares, no. But he had certainly felt them, hearing it from someone else, though, made him extremely happy. "you're amazing, Pans!" he laughed, "if I wasn't spoken for, I'd kiss you!"

Pansy made a disgusted face, "no thanks," she paused, "it was hard, you know. Not that hard, of course, he caved within 3 days, but he was so adamant that he and Granger were going to be together. I just had to convince him otherwise," she grinned and wiggled her eyebrows, and all three males groaned in disgust.

Well, thought Draco, if Weasley could be distracted by any pretty girl in a skirt, he didn't deserve Granger, anyway.

Pansy looked down at the watch on her wrist, "Oh!" she exclaimed, "is that the time? I must be off, I have a… meeting," she smirked, getting up and walking out of the Great Hall. Not even 2 minutes later, Draco watched Weasley get up and hurry out after her. Whipped, he thought, Weasley is whipped by Pansy. The thought made him want to jump with joy! At least he wouldn't be chasing after Granger anymore. He knew telling Pansy would be a good idea.

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After obtaining the pass from McGonagall, Hermione presented it to the librarian and made her way into the restricted section, and began looking for what she wanted. A book, or five, on male veelas. She didn't doubt that Draco was one, or that she was his mate, but she wanted to have the upper-hand. Hermione suspected that he thought she was clueless, that he would be able to manipulate her into accepting him, but no, she thought, not going to happen.

 _If_ , and that was a big _if_ , she decided to accept him, then it would be on her terms. And if she didn't accept him? Well, she thought, he would just have to live with that!

Hermione ran her fingers across the books, reading the titles, until she came to one that seemed promising… _The Rare Male Veela and Their Mates by Timothy Rollins._ She picked it off of the shelf, walked out of the restricted section to her usual table, sat down, and began reading.

Hermione was of course a fast reader, and made her way half way through the book within 45 minutes. It was then that she read something that made her heart stop.

 _Male veelas come of age at the age of 17 years. This is also when they recognise who their mate is. From their 17_ _th_ _birthday, they have one year to find their mate, convince her to accept the bond, and complete the mating ceremony. If this is not done by the veela's birthday, the veela will, without a doubt, die. It is unknown as to why this is, as the female veela is able to survive and chose their mate. Theories have said that the male veela dies of a broken heart, or dies because they've been unable to mark their mate. (for more information on marking, turn to page 393)._

All that Hermione kept repeating in her head was: ' _the veela will, without a doubt, die.'_

Hermione didn't know what to do, she knew from previous knowledge that had been confirmed by the book she was reading that veelas were very possessive of their mates and once the bond was created, it was for forever. Forever as in, there's no going back. She didn't know if she wanted to be tied to the boy who had bullied her for the first 6 years of her life in the wizarding world! Sure, he hadn't been terrible to her since 5th year, but that wasn't the point.

Hermione was at war with herself. On one hand, she didn't want to be pushed into being with Malfoy forever, especially when there were no feelings on her part. Sure, she found herself staring at him a lot, but that didn't mean she wanted to marry the guy! On the other hand, she knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if he died because she couldn't bring herself to accept him.

And I was dealing with this so well, Hermione thought to herself. I thought I'd have a few years to make this bloody decision, and if I did end up rejecting him, he'd just be a little bit sad… not dead!

Hermione was working herself into a mess, she was panicked, unsure and scared. She put her head in her hands, and let the tears that had been threatening to fall since reading that dreadful line, fall.

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Draco had a sudden feeling that Granger was distressed, he didn't know how he knew it, but he did, and he went straight to where he knew she would be, the library. He got there, and took a subtle sniff of the air, searching for her scent. Soon enough, he found it, and was on his way to her table.

When he got there, he saw her with her head in her hands and her shoulders shaking, every now and then she would let out a small sob. He didn't know why she was crying, but he swore it broke his heart to see her do so. It wasn't the first time, she had cried once in 4th year in front of him, when Snape had quipped that awful comment about her teeth. This time was different though, he could sense it.

She didn't hear him approach her, but jumped when he touched her shoulder. When she looked up at him and her eyes widened, he knelt down next to her seat, so he was staring up at her instead of the other way around.

"what's wrong?" he asked softly, this made her tears fall even faster and she slowly leant into his touch, making Draco and the veela relax a bit, he was _helping_ , he thought to himself.

"I…" she began, but when he reached up to wipe her tears from her face, she sucked in a quick breath of air and jumped up out of her seat, "don't!" she said, loudly. Not loud enough to draw any attention, though. Her rejection didn't make him angry, like he thought it would, it just made him confused. She was letting me comfort her, why won't she now? He asked himself.

When his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, and he tried to walk toward her, just to comfort her, to tell her that he would make it better, make whoever made her cry pay for it, she spoke again, quieter this time, "Malfoy, just don't," her eyes darted down to where the book she had been reading lay open on the table, and his followed. She turned around and walked away quickly, leaving behind her bag and the book, just needing to get out of there and away from him as soon as possible.

Draco's first instinct was to follow after her, and make her happy again, but the book that lay open on the desk had frozen him. He slowly sat down where Hermione had previously been sat and read the page she had left open.

 _'_ _If this is not done by the veela's birthday, the veela will, without a doubt, die. It is unknown as to why this is, as the female veela is able to…'_

Draco stopped reading, slammed the book closed and ran his hands through his hair _. Fuck!_ He thought, leaning back on the chair that was still warm from having Hermione sat on it for so long, she _knew_ , not only did she know that he was a veela, but she knew that if she didn't accept him, he'd die.

How could I think that she was oblivious? He questioned himself, it's Hermione _fucking_ Granger, she is _never_ oblivious!

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Draco didn't see Hermione again until Monday morning in potions. When he had asked the house elves in the kitchen, they had told him that she was taking her meals in her dormitory, and not coming out. Draco himself had barely been eating and sleeping, causing his friends to worry. Pansy had offered to try and get some information from Weasley, who she was still seeing, but Draco had told her not to bother. He didn't want Weasley getting suspicious.

As Draco walked in to potions, he half expected Hermione not to be there. But she was, of course. Hermione Granger would protest to missing a lesson if she were on her deathbed. As he got closer, and Hermione's scent graced his nostrils for the first time in days, he let out a sigh of relief. This attracted her attention, and she turned around, stared at him, and went back to unpacking her things from her bag. He had paid some Gryffindor first year 2 Galleons to give it to her when he realised she was avoiding him. He didn't want to upset her any more than she already was.

He didn't say anything when he sat down, honestly not knowing what to say. His veela was on edge, and he didn't know what to do.

"Hello, Draco," Hermione greeted him in a small voice, and his head snapped to her quickly.

"Granger," he began, a small smile coming onto his face, and his veela settling down a little, "I was wondering if we could talk after potions, if you're free?"

She nodded, and he grinned at her, "Great."

For the rest of the lesson, all either of the two could think about was what the outcome of their 'talk' would be.

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Hope you enjoyed! Xx


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

It's a three-day weekend as it's May Day on Monday, so you can probably expect a few chapters over the weekend ;) review, if you want!

 **Chapter 9**

Potions ended, and the rest of the class cleared out whilst Draco waited behind for Hermione to pack up all of her things. He frowned, noticing that she was taking her time, obviously trying to put off their talk for as long as possible. However, Snape looked up and noticed the two and gave Draco a questioning look, as if to ask if they needed any privacy. Snape knew that leaving them alone would be fine as Draco had been taking the potion that he had been brewing for him, so at Draco's nod, he got up.

"Malfoy, there is a potion brewing in the back room. I have an errand to run, would you mind staying here and keeping an eye on it?"

"Of course, sir," Draco grinned, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Granger looking in between the two.

"10 points to Slytherin for being helpful," Snape smirked, robes flying behind him as he left the room.

"10 points to Slytherin?" Hermione muttered in disbelief, "shouldn't have been awarded points for _that!_ "

"Don't be bitter, Granger. I was being a helpful student," Hermione went to argue, but Draco continued talking, "plus, he'll be gone a while. This gives us somewhere private to talk," he lent back against a desk and stared at her.

Hermione licked her lips, as they had gone dry suddenly, and Draco's eyes followed the movement of her tongue. He shook his head, and looked back to her eyes, "what do you know?" he asked, not wanting to give anything that she might not know, away.

Hermione maintained their eye contact, and all she said was, " _everything_." Draco sighed, _of course_ she isn't going to elaborate, he thought, annoyed.

She moved a little closer, not within his reaching range, but closer, and hoisted herself up to sit on a one of the desk tops, "I know that you're a veela, and I am your mate. And I know what will happen to you if I reject you."

His jaw clenched just at the thought of her rejection. "and do you know what you're going to do?" he questioned.

Her eyebrows rose, and she spoke slowly, "you can't honestly expect me to-" she was cut off by him propelling himself off of the desk he was leaning at, and suddenly he was right in front of her, his arms on the desk either side of her waist.

"you've already decided to reject me?" he snarled, "you've only known 3 fucking days!"

She went to talk again, but his hands had suddenly made their way to her waist, and he was gripping her. Draco was having an internal debate, a part of him was angry and wanted to let her know that, but another, more reasonable part of him was telling him that it was _her choice_ , and his anger wasn't going to be what changed her mind.

"Granger," he whispered, "I know, I know that we haven't gotten along, but… just please, please try and let me convince you otherwise," his eyes were focused on hers, and once again, she opened her mouth to speak but was cut off, "I'll make it up to you, all of those times I was awful. You'll never want for anything, I swear, just give me some time. Just a little bit of time to show you that we could work."

His hands were still gripping her hips when she spoke, "Merlin, Malfoy! If you had just let me finish my sentence! I was going to say that you couldn't have expected me to make a decision in a matter of days!" she took in a breath of air, "I'm going," she paused, "I'm going to give you a chance. That doesn't mean I will accept this," she warned, "but I'm not going to just sentence you to death without giving you a chance."

Draco let out a happy laugh, something Hermione had never really seen him do before, and she was marveling at just how beautiful he looked when he did so which would explain why she was so shocked when his hands went from gripping her hips to lightly cupping her face. "Malfoy, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Thank you," he whispered in a low voice, and decided to throw caution to the wind and pull her face down so her lips would meet his.

It took a few seconds, but Hermione began to kiss back, causing Draco to let out a content sigh and smile into their kiss.

Suddenly, Hermione smelt something wonderful, and her eyes opened, shocked, and she stopped kissing back. Draco pulled his lips away from hers, reluctantly, and asked, "what's wrong? I shouldn't have done that, should I? It was too soon, shit, I'm so-" this time, it was _Hermione_ who cut _Draco_ off, by grabbing his face and pulling it to hers.

Their kiss was much more frantic this time, and Hermione started pushing Draco's robes off of him. Once they were off, she went for his belt, and Draco stilled in surprise, and ended their kiss. This didn't deter Hermione, however, and she began to kiss and suck on his neck, instead. His hands shot to hers on his belt, and pulled them away, "Granger, stop. What are you doing?" he exclaimed, pulling her head away from his neck.

She mewled in protest, "Draco, please." She said in a voice he had never heard her use before. A voice, that he liked. Very much.

Her hands went to his belt again, and he pushed them away and stepped back, "Draco," she growled, jumping off of the table and walking toward him.

He put a desk in between them, "Merlin, Granger!" he shouted, frustrated. If they did was she was insinuating they do, it would trigger the mating ceremony, and she would be left with no choice. He _wouldn't_ do that to her. "You know that we can't!"

Hermione was breathing heavily, and there was a heat that had pooled in her stomach. The wonderful smell went away, and she seemed to snap out of a daze, "what?" she said, "what is going on?"

"what is going on?" Draco asked the witch in disbelief, "you just tried to bloody jump me, that is what is _going on_!" Draco ran his hand through his hair, and Hermione let out an offended squeak, "I'm a _veela_ Granger! You're my _mate_! Do you know what would have happened if I couldn't resist you then?"

"Of course, I know! I'm not stupid, I just don't get why I would do that?" She questioned. Hermione wanted to be angry at him, but she had the memories of the last few minutes. He had been trying to get her to stop, when he could have just taken her, and eliminated the threat against his life. She was extremely thankful that he hadn't taken her choice, though. She would have never been able to forgive him.

The frustrated look fled his face, and was replaced with a rather smug one, "well, I am extremely good looking," he smirked, "don't blame _yourself_ , you're a teenage girl, just _full_ of hormones and what not," he was about to continue teasing her, but the look that graced her face intrigued him, so he didn't, and instead let her speak whatever was on her mind.

"Hormones! You _bloody_ git, you released _pheromones_!"

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

The door to the classroom banged open and Snape walked in, "what _ever_ are you two fools arguing about?"

"She's saying I released pheromones! I would bloody well know!" Draco said.

He took in the ruffled appearance of his Godson and the girl glaring at the blond and smirked, "I would say you probably did. You're both lucky that Draco has been faithfully taking the potion dampening his veela instincts, otherwise you'd most likely be a mated pair right now," Hermione smirked triumphantly at the veela.

"I told you," she said to Draco.

"I," he began, "I didn't mean to, I swear, Granger. I wouldn't take your choice," he said, praying that she would understand.

She nodded, and although she was embarrassed by the way she had acted, and by the fact that Snape was probably aware of the way she had acted, she said "it's fine. Just, try and learn to control it. I don't want that happening every time you touch me."

Draco grinned at her, "so you're not adverse to letting me _touch_ you again, then?"

Hermione blushed, and opened her mouth, but was cut off.

"Get out. Both of you. Out. Now!" Demanded Snape, who had just come to the realisation of what the two teenagers had been doing in _his_ classroom.

The two students looked at eachother in confusion, but gathered their things and left anyway. As they went their separate ways at the door, Snape heard them talking.

"See you for patrols tonight, Granger," Snape could imagine the smirk on Draco's face.

"Yes. You'll not be _touching_ me Malfoy, so don't look so smug!"

"We'll see. You obviously liked my touch before."

Snape groaned to himself, and sent a flick of his wand at the door, causing it to slam close and therefore cutting of the conversation.

Bloody teenagers, Snape thought, even worse when one is a _Veela_.

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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Reviews are appreciated! and motivating ;) xx


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Hope that everyone is having a good weekend! enjoy the chapter :)

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 **Chapter 10**

Hermione was pacing, waiting for her patrol partner, Draco Malfoy to arrive. He was late, and as the minutes ticked by, she was becoming more annoyed. Tardiness is one of my biggest pet peeves, thought Hermione as she checked her watch one last time.

It was then that Draco rounded the corner, "evening, Granger."

"You're late, Malfoy." Hermione stated, with a scowl on her face.

Draco nodded at the witch, "yeah, sorry about that, I was getting my potion from Snape."

She looked down at the floor and then back up to Draco, "right, let's get started then, shall we?" she asked.

Draco grinned at her, "lets," he said, walking past her as she hurried on behind him to keep up. His veela was more than happy today, not only did he get to spend a lot of time with his pretty mate, but he also got a kiss out of it. As he thought about the kiss, a self-satisfied look made it's way onto the blonds face, and suddenly, Hermione smelt the same scent that she had smelt earlier, this time, however, she knew what it was.

She stopped, abruptly, "Malfoy! Stop it!" she exclaimed.

Draco, not having realised that the witch had stopped, spun around, confused. "Stop what?" he asked.

"Pheromones!" she hissed, and the smell started to disappear. Merlin, thought Hermione.

"Fuck, sorry. I didn't mean to, I was thinking about earlier," he smirked at her, causing heat to rise up on her cheeks.

"W- well..." she stuttered, "just don't bloody think about it then!"

Draco chuckled at her obvious embarrassment, "hard not too, Granger."

Hermione made an undignified noise, and said, "can we please just get on with patrols? I would like to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight, you know," she paused, "I've not been sleeping too well lately."

Draco's face softened, "have you tried a potion?" he asked, becoming concerned about his mates sleeping habits, as well as her eating ones. The veela frowned.

"Yes, and don't start going all protective veela on me, please," she grinned, and began walking to carry on their patrols.

Draco laughed, and followed after her.

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They had nearly finshed their patrol, having caught two fifth year Ravenclaws, a hungry Hufflepuff on his way to the kitchens and a first year Gryffindor travelling to the Slytherin common room on a dare, out of bed, when they heard giggling and a deep voice coming from a nearby empty classroom.

Draco looked at Hermione as wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she swatted his arm. "extra points to be taken if they're doing what I think they're doing." Hermione grumbled, slowly walking over to the door.

"Don't be so hard on them, Granger. After all, it would be a little bit hypocritcal of you, don't you think?" he smirked.

"Shut up," she muttered at him, deciding to just ignore his teasing. She put her hand on the door knob, and pulled it open. However, instead of the telling off she had planned to do, her heart dropped and her mouth fell open.

The couple in question turned to the door in surprise when it was pulled open, and the boy pushed the girl off of him.

"Ron?" Hermione whispered, looking in between him and Pansy Parkinson in blatant shock and hurt.

Draco's veela could sense the hurt radiating off of his mate, but didn't know what to do. He had caused this. He was conflicted, he was happy that Weasley was out of the way, but not if it resulted in Granger being hurt.

"Mione, I," Ron started, but stopped when the hurt look on his friend's face turned into cold indifference, and she began to talk, "20 points from Gryffindor, and 20 points from Slytherin. Get back to your common rooms, both of you."

As Pansy passed Draco, she stopped, gave him a wink, and whispered in his ear, "why don't you comfort her? I'm sure she'll be open to the idea of revenge on Weasley," and then carried on walking. She bloody set this up, he thought, both thankful and annoyed. It allowed Granger to see that Weasley was a piece of shit, but it also upset her. Weasley gave him a glare as he walked by, and Draco glowered at him in return.

When they were gone, Hermione didn't move. "Granger?" Draco said, moving closer to her, and resting a hand upon her shoulder.

"I'm fine," she muttered, "just disappointed, is all."

Part of Draco found it hard to comfort her when she was upset over another guy, but the Slytherin side of him decided that it was a great opportunity for he and his veela to get closer to her. "Hey," he said, "come with me."

She looked at him and furrowed her eyebrows, "where?"

He smiled and grabbed her hand, "you'll see."

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"The Room of Requirement?" she asked, as they walked through the doors.

The room had obviously changed to what Draco had required, which was whatever was going to make his mate feel better, so when they walked in, what tey saw was a smalll, homely library, with a lit fireplace and a comfy looking couch.

Hermione grinned at him, and his heart fluttered. "It's lovely!" she said, walking quickly over to one of the shelves. Draco walked over to the couch and sat down, and yes, he thought, this couch is as comfortable as it looked, and watched the pretty witch flutter about the library fussing over all of the books as he took his robes and tie off.

Hermione was in heaven, there were so many books! She picked one that seemed interesting, and turned to walk to the couch, she walked a little more hesitantly when she saw that Draco was watching her, but walked over and sat down next to him anyway.

"want to read to me?" she grinned, passing him the book.

He rose his eyebrows, but took the book anyway and began reading. Hermione saw that Draco had taken his robes and tie off, and thought it was a good idea, they weren't the most comfortable things, and did the same. After about 10 minutes of him reading to her, she lent her head on his shoulder, and curled her legs up onto the couch, and Draco smiled as he read. It didn't take long, and he felt her breathing even out, so he looked down at her and found her sound asleep. He put the book down, conjured a blanket to cover them both, and re-arranged their position so they could both lie down comfortably.

Draco sighed in content, finally, he thought, I am going to get a full nights sleep.

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Hermione woke up first the next morning, and gasped when she realised where she was, and who she was with, she shot up. "Malfoy!" she said, shaking him awake.

He grumbled, and tried pulling her back down with him, but she jumped off the sofa. "We fell asleep!" she checked the clock, and saw it was only 6:54am, and sighed in relief.

Draco sat up and rubbed his eyes, "best nights sleep in months," he smiled.

Hermione went to agree with him, but stopped herself, and instead said, "we better get back to our common rooms before people realise we're gone! I need to get showered, oh Merlin." she realised she didn't have her tie on, and her eyes scanned the floor looking for it. She saw it lying on the floor, picked it up, and put it on.

Draco chucked at how flustered she was, "go on then, Granger. You don't need to wait for me."

She nodded, and headed out of the door. Draco watched her figure as she hurried out, and smiled.

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Hermione expected the common room to be empty when she walked through, but instead, Ron Weasley shot up from where he was sat on the couch.

"where the bloody hell have you been?" he exclaimed, "I waited all night, I wanted to explain!"

Hermione blanched, not knowing what to say. Ron took in her rumpled appearance, the messy hair, and crumpled clothing and narrowed his eyes, "who have you been with?" he asked again, his voice tinted with a jealous tone.

Bloody hell, thought Hermione, trying to come up with an excuse, and she had thought of the perfect one, she had gone to the Room of Requirement, alone, to think, and had fallen asleep. it was close enough to the truth! However, just as she was about to tell Ron this, he spoke instead.

"and why the bloody hell have you got a slytheirn tie on?" he hissed.

Oh, shit, thought Hermione, her hand coming up to touch the tie she had quickly thrown on.

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I do not in any way think that Ron is 'a piece of shit.' I love his character, but Draco is obviously going to have some problems with him at the moment. I would also like to put it out there that this story won't be Ron-Bashing. It's literally just this chaper, and perhaps the next that he acts a bit hot-headed and rash, as his character does in the HP series. That is all. :)

Review, if you want! xx


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer** : The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Second chapter of the day… well, there's only 20 minutes left of said day, but still ;)

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 **Chapter 11**

Hermione quickly took the Slytherin tie off, and held it in her hands, trying to think of an excuse.

" _Well_?" Ron asked, impatiently. His face was getting redder and redder as the seconds ticked by and he drew his own conclusions in his head. "off shagging some Slytherin, were you?" he hissed at her, angry and jealous. In the back of his mind, he knew he had no right to be either, he wasn't her boyfriend, and he was doing exactly the same, but he couldn't help himself.

"You bloody hypocrite!" Hermione screeched, "I caught you in a broom cupboard with the _Queen of the snakes_ herself, so you have no right _! Absolutely no right_ to be asking me such questions!" Hermione was breathing heavily, "and I will have you know that I was not _shagging_ anyone! A friend was comforting me, and we fell asleep. Not that it is any of your business, Ronald Weasley!"

"It… it's not the same, Mione! Pansy and I don't have _feelings_ for eachother, we're just… you know!" Ron said in reply.

"It's not the same?" Hermione repeated, in disbelief. What a git! She thought. She was hurt enough because of finding out about Parkinson and him the way she did, and now he was behaving this way? I _don't_ know why I'm surprised, Hermione thought, especially considering the way he acted with Viktor. He doesn't want me, she thought bitterly, but the minute there's a _murmur_ of someone else, there's world war three. "and why is that?" Hermione asked.

She didn't wait for his reply, however, and instead began her rant, "so it's acceptable for you to whore around with the likes of Lavender Brown and Pansy Parkinson, and I'm supposed to just wait around for you? Is that it? You're jealous?" she laughed bitterly.

"Yes!" Ron yelled, "we were meant to be together this year. I was going to ask you, but then Pansy… she showed interest… and I thought-"

"You thought you'd pass me over, again," Hermione let out a chuckle, "Ronald, any chance of us being together went out the window the minute you chose Lavender Brown over me last year," Hermione dropped her eyes to the floor, she hadn't known that until now. She had thought she had forgiven him, but apparently not, she thought. She looked back up to Ron's face, stared him straight in the eye and said in a strong, convincing voice, "I _will not_ be someone's second choice, Ronald. I am so much better than that." She thought of Draco, and how she would always be his first choice if she accepted him, and when Ron spoke again, she sighed.

"But… you're not! You're my first choice, Hermione, please, I swear," Ron said.

Hermione shook her head, and said softy, "I'm not, Ron. Think about it, all the times you've chosen other things and other people over me."

Ron's face became more desperate as he realised the direction the conversation was going in, "Hermione, I love you. I'll end things with Parkinson, we'd be good together, me and you. Everyone knows it, give me a chance."

Those three words coming out of that particular boy's mouth would have thrilled her a year ago, now, however, they just made her sad. She smiled at him, not the smile he would have wanted, though, and said, "Ron, your love for me doesn't extend beyond friendship," she raised her hand when he started to interrupt, and then continued, "and nor do mine for you, I _know_ that now. You love the _idea_ of me, the idea of falling in love with your best friend, I loved that idea, too."

It was silent for a moment, "and I couldn't give you a chance, even if I had wanted too. I've promised someone else that I'll give him a chance, and I intend to do so, because I have hope that he'll always put me first," Ron squeezed his eyes closed, and opened them again to see Hermione walking closer to him, "as for Parkinson… Ron, she deserves better than that. As _awful_ as she is sometimes, she doesn't deserve to be a second choice, either. No one does. So, if you're not going to put her first, you need to let her know that." She really was terrible sometimes, Hermione thought, but she had seen the look on Pansy's face as she stared at Ron just before they realised someone had interrupted them, and there was _no way_ that there were no feelings on her part.

Ron opened his mouth and closed it again, he nodded at what she had said, "who is he?"

"You don't need to know that right now." Ron looked like he was about to protest, but Hermione carried on speaking anyway, "Just… consider what I said about Parkinson. Think about your feelings for her. No girl should be strung along, so just let her know how you feel about her." Hermione didn't want anyone else getting hurt by the redhead. He could be so oblivious sometimes, and then ruin something good with his hotheadedness when he realised what was right in front of him. She didn't want him missing out on something, or _someone_ , that could be extraordinary for him.

"Okay," Ron whispered quietly, he looked at the witch who he had been sure he would marry someday, "you'll always be my best friend though, won't you?"

Hermione smiled, "of course I will, don't be ridiculous. Me, you and Harry are always going to be best friends. I love you both," she quickly added, "as friends. Brothers, even. I always will."

"Good," Ron replied, and pulled Hermione into a hug, "I'm sorry… I know I can be rash sometimes."

Hermione pulled away and nodded, then checked her watch, "Merlin! Is that the time? 7:30am? I'm not going to have time for a shower!" she groaned, and performed a quick cleaning spell on herself, before waving goodbye to Ron and running up the stairs to get ready.

Ron sighed as he watched her go, well, he thought, I better think about how I feel about Pansy.

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Draco and Blaise were walking to the Great Hall for lunch, when Potter and Weasley came out of a classroom and cut in front of them. Draco was about to say something to them, but Blaise stopped him, "listen."

"You told her you loved her? Blimey," Potter said. Who were they talking about? He instantly thought Hermione, but Weasley wouldn't be telling another girl he was in love with her when he was with Pansy, surely? His veela was definitely out and listening, though, for the possibility that he was talking about Draco's mate.

Draco saw Weasley nod his head, "yeah. I was so sure that she would say it back, too,"

"Yeah," Potter said in agreement, "Hermione's loved you for years! I was sure of it!"

"Draco," Blaise said in warning, "control yourself." Draco nodded his head stiffly. He was angry at Weasley, _again_ , for two reasons. One, Hermione was _his_ mate, and two, Pansy was his best friend.

"Said she was with someone else, now, and that I love the idea of her," Weasley grumbled.

The two Gryffindors turned into the Great Hall, and Blaise turned to Draco, grinning, "Granger told Weasley that she was with you!"

"I know, I'll have to have a word with her about that," he grinned back.

"Malfoy." He heard the voice of his mate say from behind him, "can I talk to you, please?"

"Of course. Blaise, I'll see you in there," Blaise nodded, and went through the doors to the Great Hall to get some lunch.

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Hermione handed him a tie as soon as they got into an empty classroom.

"Ah. Thanks." He said, taking it from her hands, and pulling out her own tie from his bag and giving it to her.

"Did you do that on purpose?" she demanded.

"What? No! You're the one who got them switched!" he said, rather offended. He supposed he couldn't blame her for thinking it, though. It would be a rather Slytherin thing to do, switching their ties to expose them.

"I'm sorry… it's just… Ron saw. We had an argument. I thought…"

"That I had caused it. I get it, I do. But I didn't." he took a deep breath, and with it, came the scent of his mate. It was different though, tainted, almost.

"Eugh!" he exclaimed.

"What?"

"You _stink_!"

" _Excuse_ me! I do not!" Hermione was deeply offended. She knew she hadn't had time to shower this morning, but she had done so the morning before, and she was very good at cleaning charms. Rude git, she thought.

"You do! You reek of Weasley!" he hissed, not liking the scent of another male on his mate. Especially a male that _wants_ her, he thought.

Oh, of course, Hermione thought, "he hugged me. This morning, after we resolved the argument."

Draco didn't say anything, and instead charged toward her and wrapped his arms around her, "Malfoy! What are you doing?"

"Getting his scent off of you," he mumbled, running his hands up and down the length of her body.

"Well, stop. I'll be showering when classes finish." She told him.

"Too long. Can I kiss you?" he asked, suddenly.

Hermione blinked in surprise, well, she thought, at least he is actually _asking_ this time. "Pheromones." She whispered.

"I won't."

"You can't guarantee that. It's embarrassing for me." She said.

He nodded in understanding, "you'd better go then, I need to go and get another potion from Snape. Make sure you eat something, please." He released her from his arms, and she sent a tentative smile at him before making her way out of the door and to the Great Hall.

When she was gone, he sat down at one of the desks and put his head in his hands. He needed to be in control before he left the room, just in case.

He thought about what Weasley had said and about what it meant for Pansy. He was unsure if she had any feelings for the ginger idiot, but knew she would want to know, either way. He groaned when he thought about telling her. Even if she _didn't_ have feelings for Weasley, he knew that she would be offended on principle, and if she did? A hurt Pansy was an angry Pansy, and Merlin help whoever hurt the Slytherin witch.

He almost felt sorry for Weasley. Almost.

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Hope you enjoyed this! I wasn't too sure about the part with Hermione and Ron, but I decided to post it anyway. Review, please! :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer** : The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

 **Chapter 12**

After getting his daily potion from Snape, Draco decided he'd better get some lunch, and break the news about Weasley to Pansy. He was dreading her reaction, as cold and indifferent as Pansy acted, he knew the real her. He knew about her insecurities and how prideful she could be at times. He knew that she wasn't going to take this well, whether she had feelings for Weasley, or not.

As he walked through the doors to the Great Hall, his eyes immediately went to where Granger was sat at the Gryffindor table. She was sat with Weaslette and Potter, Weasley was nowhere to be seen. A rather good thing, he supposed, considering what Pansy was about to discover.

Approaching the Slytherin table, Draco tried to go over what he was going to say to his friend in his head. All too soon, he was there, and had no choice but to sit down. "Afternoon, Draco," Pansy smiled at him, cheerfully. Draco nodded and smiled back at her, but she saw that his smile didn't reach his eyes, and he seemed worried about something. Granger? She wondered. The Gryffindor witch seemed to be the one causing all of them worries, recently.

Pansy watched Draco slowly eat his food, every now and then, he would glance up at her, and when he saw her studying him curiously, he would look away again. This is unusual, thought Pansy, where's his usual confidence and arrogance? "Malfoy," she rose her eyebrows, "is something wrong?" her mind immediately went to last night, _she_ knew that _he_ knew that she had planned for Granger to catch her and Ron in the broom cupboard, maybe he is annoyed at me about that? She wondered, I was only trying to help the process along.

"I have something to tell you," Draco said, and Pansy motioned for him to say whatever it was. Can't be nothing too awful, she thought, Draco's _known_ for being dramatic, she mused, he's probably just done something like spilt pumpkin juice on my newest edition of Witch Weekly, like that time in 5th year. She had thought he was about to tell her that someone had bloody _died_ when he'd confessed.

"It's about…" he lowered his voice and leaned closer to her, ensuring that nobody else would hear, "Weasley."

Oh. "Draco, I got us caught for _you_. Don't be angry, Granger knows that he is _unavailable_ , now. I was doing you a favour."

Draco shook his head, "I'm not angry about that, rather thankful, actually," he gave her a small smile, "Weasley… he- Weasley told Granger that he was in love with her, last night. Begged her to give him a chance."

Draco saw Pansy's face drop, her eyes flashed with hurt, and then suddenly, it became indifferent, like she couldn't care less. Draco, however, knew better. "Pansy…"

"I'm fine. It was never anything serious." She swallowed, and began gathering up her bags, "I need to go. I must owl my mother, she wanted to know what robes I wanted to wear to your mothers annual Christmas party in a few months. Must be off," and before Draco could comprehend what had happened, she was out of the Great Hall. He made to get up to follow her, but Blaise put his hand on his shoulder.

"You know Pans, she'll want to be alone for the moment. Lick her wounds in peace."

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Pansy was walking briskly down one of the many corridors of Hogwarts, determined to get to the privacy of her dorm room. So _stupid_ , she thought, why would he want me for anything more than casual sex? He never claimed to want anything more, and I certainly never told him I did, and thank _Merlin_ I didn't. Pansy knew that her and Ron's relationship, if you could call it that, really had started out as a way to keep him away from Granger so that she would focus on Draco, but she had come to care for the ginger boy. He made her _laugh_ , and he was a rather good kisser, too. She had known that involving feelings was a bad idea. A terrible one, really. Who the _hell_ lets themselves fall for someone who is so obviously pining after someone else?

Pansy was lost in her thoughts about how stupid she was for letting herself feel for a _Weasley_ , of all people, when she heard said boy calling out her name.

"Pansy! Pans, wait up, will you?" he said, she heard his footsteps increase, and she started walking faster, trying to get away from him.

His steps were larger, however, and he was running. When he caught up to her, he gently grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. He was out of breath and red faced, but she thought he looked nice, anyway, especially with the boyish grin placed on his face. She quickly shook away these thoughts. Time to go into _bitch-mode_ , she thought, schooling her face into a displeased, but dis-interested frown. "What do you want, Weasley?"

His smile dropped a bit at her indifference, but he kept smiling at her, anyway. "Didn't you hear me? I was calling you."

"Yes," she said, pursing her lips, "I heard. I was ignoring you." She stated.

"Oh." He scratched the back of his neck, and his face flushed even more, this time in embarrassment, rather than because of running. "Erm. Why?" he asked.

She scoffed. "Because we're done. I don't want to meet up with you in empty classrooms and broom cupboards anymore. I'm bored of you." She stated, no emotion what so ever in her voice. None of what she was saying was strictly true, but she supposed that she had better reject him before he rejected her. He couldn't have Granger, but that didn't mean he didn't have someone else lined up. Brown, perhaps. She was _protecting_ herself, from anymore hurt and future embarrassment.

"You're… bored?"

"That's what I said. I know that you're a little dumb, but don't tell me you can't understand what I'm saying?" she laughed, "I am speaking English."

He looked confused, and hurt. Which in return, confused Pansy.

Ron had taken Hermione's advice, and thought about his feelings for both her and Pansy. He had come to the conclusion that she was right, he loved the _idea_ of Hermione, he loved how _pretty_ she was, and how _happy_ it would make his family if they were together. But, he didn't _love_ her, not as anything more than a best friend. A _sister_.

Pansy, however, well… she was more than casual shagging. At first, it had been exactly that. She was beautiful, and willing, and he _wasn't_ willing to pass that over. But he had gotten to know her, and she was funny, and while he knew he didn't love her, he realised that he did rather like her. He had been trying to find her so he could tell her that. He knew that he would have to be the one to reveal his feelings first. She was a Slytherin, not known for their bravery. Apparently though, she didn't feel the same way as he did about her.

"Blimley," he muttered, furrowing his eyebrows, his face red with humiliation, "alright. I'll… go then. Won't bother you again." He said, and turned around, walking back in the direction he had come, with much less enthusiasm that he had had chasing after the Slytherin witch.

When he had turned the corner, and Pansy was sure he was gone, she let out a quiet sob. I can't believe, she thought, that after telling another girl that he was in love with her he would come and find me. He only came and found her for one reason, sex. Pansy darted into the nearest bathroom, Moaning Myrtle's.

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Hermione was making her way slowly to the loo after lunch, Moaning Myrtle's, to be precise. There was never anyone there, and if she were being honest, she rather pitied the ghost, Myrtle was obviously lonely, and while Hermione found her ever so irritating, she supposed it didn't hurt giving her 10 minutes of her time.

She walked in, expecting to hear Myrtle's cries, and whilst she did hear the sounds of a girl sobbing, it definitely wasn't Myrtle.

"Surprised it's not me?" Myrtle whispered in her ear, startling Hermione.

"Who is it?" asked Hermione, concerned.

"Unsure of her name. Heard her having an argument with your friend, Ron though."

"Parkinson." Hermione whispered, "thank you, Myrtle." Myrtle didn't say anything, just floated off.

Hermione walked slowly toward the sounds of the sobs, and stopped outside of the cubicle that Pansy was obviously in. "Urm, Parkinson?" she asked.

The sobbing abruptly stopped, and Pansy hissed, "Fuck off, Granger."

Hermione ignored the girl, "are you ok?"

The cubicle door flew open, "am I ok?" sneered Pansy, "do I look ok? I'm fucking crying in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Just fuck off!"

Hermione was never one to leave someone who was upset, though, so she pushed. "Is this about… Ronald?"

Pansy's face screwed up in her effort not to cry again, "Granger, seriously. Go. Away."

"It is, isn't it? What _has_ that idiot said to you? I swear, he has the emotional range of a bloody teaspoon!" Hermione exclaimed.

"It's not what he said to me. It's what he said to you." Pansy whispered.

"What?"

"He told you that he loved you."

"How do you know?" Hermione said, confused. She hadn't told anyone, she was giving Ronald the chance to make things right, and to ensure that Pansy was his _first_ choice.

"Draco."

How the bloody hell does he know? Thought Hermione, that git. He might've caused unnecessary hurt and drama, Ron needed more than _one day_ to figure out his feelings for Pansy!

Hermione was going to tell Pansy this, but the girl began speaking.

"I don't know why I thought I could mean something to him. He so obviously wants you! And, why wouldn't he? You're beautiful, and intelligent, the only unfortunate thing about you is your blood, and even that doesn't matter anymore!" Hermione raised her eyebrows at the comment about her heritage, "and I'm me. Pug-nosed-Parkinson" she laughed bitterly to herself, "I'm not intelligent, the only good thing about me is my blood, which like I said, no longer matters." Pansy sat down on the closed toilet lid, and covered her face with her hands.

"Parkinson," Hermione started, "Pansy. Ron and I… we're not _ever_ going to be more than friends, he knows that. He doesn't love me as more than a friend, I can assure you." Hermione walked closer to the upset witch, knelt down on the bathroom floor, which was rather dirty, Hermione reminded herself to throw her tights away once she had left the bathroom, and put her arms around Pansy. She was sure that the Slytherin would shrug her off, tell her to fuck off again, but instead, she began to sob again.

"Nobody ever wants me!" she cried, "certainly not Ron Weasley! I'm so stupid, getting involved with him anyway. I'm never ever doing anything for Draco again, next time competition for your attention arises, he can bloody well get rid of it himself!"

Hermione sucked in a breath of air, her mind quickly realising that Pansy had gotten with Ron to get him out of the way for Draco. _Bastard_ , she thought. She knew she couldn't blame Pansy, though, she was just being a loyal friend, and she had been hurt by her actions enough.

Hermione rubbed Pansy's back, "Myrtle said that you were arguing with him outside. What was that about?"

"I told him that I was bored of him, I rejected him before he could reject me."

Hermione sighed, bloody Slytherin tactics. "You should've let him talk, first. I told him to think about his feelings for you, and give you up if he wasn't going to put you first. How did he seem before you told him?"

Pansy gulped and looked at the other witch, "he… he was happy. I just… assumed he wanted sex! What have I done?" she cried, "wouldn't he have needed more than a few hours to realise what he wanted, though?" Pansy sniffed.

"Ron… he is… Ron is complicated. He needs to be _told_ things sometimes, and I'm sure my telling off would have caused him to come to some realisations." Hermione smiled, "do you still want him?"

Pansy nodded, wiping her eyes, "he'll be up the Quidditch stands, he goes there sometimes, and he has a free period after lunch."

The slytherin witch stood up, wiped her eyes, and sorted out her hair and make-up. Within a few minutes, she looked perfectly presentable. "and Pansy, you're beautiful, too, and smart. You truly are, you shouldn't think otherwise, nor need a male to make you feel so."

Pansy smiled, "thank you, Granger. You'll be good for Draco, I can tell," Pansy looked toward the door, and then back to Hermione, "not a word of this, Granger. I'll deny it all, if you speak of it."

Hermione laughed, and repeated, "not a word." Pansy nodded, and left the bathroom to go and find Weasley, and perhaps fix things. They _both_ had some apologies to make.

Hermione had her own task, now. She had to find Draco and straighten out the sneaky, scheming veela. Eliminating _competition_? I am _not_ a _prize_ , thought Hermione, on her way to her next lesson, and making plans to track the blond down after dinner later that night.

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I know this chapter was more focused on Ron and Pansy's relationship rather than Hermione and Draco's, but I plan for Pansy to be a rather big character, and I wanted her to be understood. She has her insecurities, and I wanted everyone to see that. I promise that the next chapter will be focused on Dramione. :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer** : The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

It's May Day! Which means a day off, thank god! I hope that everyone is enjoying it!

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 **Chapter 13**

Hermione was sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, staring daggers across it at the blond veela who was currently avoiding looking her way. _Good_ , she thought, putting a forkful of her food into her mouth and chewing it rather aggressively. Her parents would definitely tell her off for grinding her teeth the way she was, but she was way too angry to care right now. Who did he think he was? She understood that he had wanted Ronald out of the way, but he could have _destroyed_ their friendship! What if she had been so hurt that she hadn't ever spoken to Ronald again? Plus, his scheming had gotten his _own_ friend hurt. _Gods_ , she thought, he could be so selfish sometimes. She was broken out of her musings by Harry.

"Blimey!" exclaimed Harry, elbowing her to catch her attention, "look!" he said, pointing to the entrance of the Great Hall. Hermione did as he said, and saw Ron lean down and kiss Pansy's cheek, before turning around and walking toward them. Hermione smiled, at least they've sorted that out, she thought, before turning her attention back to glaring at Draco from across the hall.

She heard Harry questioning Ron about what he had just seen, but she was too focused on ensuring that Malfoy knew she was royally pissed off with him to get involved in the conversation. The second that he stood up and began walking out of the hall, she too stood up, and followed after, without so much as a goodbye to Harry and Ron. They were too busy talking about Pansy to notice, anyway, so Hermione supposed it didn't really matter.

Draco had of course noticed her death glares that she had been sending his way throughout dinner, and his veela had been able to sense her anger all day, which in return, had put him on edge. At least things worked out for Pansy, he thought, glad that Weasley hadn't been his usual insensitive self.

He got up, and knew that Granger would be quickly following after him. He decided to lead her somewhere that she wouldn't be able to shout at him and get too angry, so he made his way to the library. He knew that she thought he hadn't noticed he was being followed. Probably thought she was being _sneaky_ , he laughed to himself as he went through the doors to the library and straight to her usual table. The library wasn't empty, but there was a Ravenclaw sat over by the window, and a Hufflepuff browsing the shelves on the other side, so it guaranteed that she couldn't get too angry with him. Merlin knows what he had done, though, he huffed. He turned around and leant up against the shelf and waited for her. When she rounded the corner, he smirked at her, "looking for me?"

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Hermione almost growled when he smirked cockily at her, "yes, as I matter of fact, I am!" she hissed. _Ugh!_ She thought, how dare he look so calm and collected.

"Well," he said, smirk not leaving his face, "here I am."

"I'll get straight to it, shall I?" she asked, not waiting for a reply before continuing anyway, "I know that you got Pansy to get Ron out of the way so that he wouldn't come after me."

The smirk dropped from Draco's face, "what?"

"You heard me, you great bloody git! How dare you! Do you even know how angry I am right now?" she yelled, walking closer and poking him in the chest with each word to punctuate her anger.

"Granger, I didn't-"

"Do. Not. Lie. To me!" Hermione hissed, "Pansy told me when she was upset over Ronald!"

"Since when are you and Parkinson best buddies?" he said, getting angry himself, she should at least allow him to explain himself, _Merlin_!

"Since I found her crying in the bathroom over Ronald! She wouldn't have even gone after him if it hadn't have been for you and your bloody _scheming_ , Malfoy!" Hermione shouted, poking him in the chest again.

Draco let out a growl and grabbed her finger from his chest, and spinning her around so she was pressed up against the book shelf. Well, been here before, haven't we? He thought. "Parkinson did that _herself_! I had no part in it, so before you start jumping to conclusions, Granger, maybe you should allow me to talk, first!" he hissed.

Hermione's jaw clenched, "you're _lying_ ," she hissed in return.

"For fuck sake, Granger! I'm _incapable_ of hurting you, I'm _your_ veela! I knew doing that would hurt you, I could have had no fucking part in it!" they were both breathing heavy, and Draco still had Hermione pinned to the book shelf, "not that I'm not thankful that he is out of the way, mind you." He said, smirking.

Hermione believed him, but she wasn't willing to lose the argument, she was a prideful person, she knew, but didn't care at that particular moment. "he is not _out of the way_! He's my best friend, and is always going to be a part of my life, if you don't like that, you can sod off!"

As he was looking down at his mate, her facial expression went from defiant to fearful to determined in a matter of _seconds_. The fear, he guessed, was because of his eyes, he had come to know when his eye colour was changing. It wasn't a physical feeling, but he knew. He couldn't bring himself to care that she was frightened because of his eyes, she should know by now that he wasn't going to hurt her. "why do you even care so much, if you don't want him anymore? You do, don't you? You still fucking want him, despite promising to give me a chance?" he hissed at her.

"What? No!" she yelled back, pushing against his chest, he didn't budge, though, "he asked me for a chance, if I had wanted him, I would have given him the chance! I told him I'm seeing someone else!"

He wasn't having any of it, however, his veela not listening, too caught up on the idea of _his mate_ wanting another man. "then why do you care so much?" he roared.

"Bloody hell, be quiet!" she said, extremely aware that they were in the library, at least Madame Pince is in the library, thought Hermione.

"Why do you care so much?" he repeated, his voice quieter, but much more colder.

"Because you went behind my back, Malfoy!"

"No, I didn't, witch! It was Pansy's scheme, I didn't even know about it until she told me, after she had convinced Weasley." He said darkly, his eyes flashing black.

"You still did not tell me."

"You want him! Just admit it, Granger, admit it!" he growled, ignoring what she had said. He knew the minute that he got her confession, he was going to find Weasley and tear him to pieces. Granger was _his_.

"I don't want him, you dense git!"

"You're lying!" he said, growling.

Hermione wanted to scream in frustration, he wasn't listening! Why would he? He was an enraged and jealous veela. The minute his eyes had changed to the back colour, he had given control to his veela, she knew that. Hermione was annoyed, _she_ was meant to be the one that was angry, not _him_. As he became angrier, she became more worried, according to the books that she had read, he wouldn't take his anger out on her, no, he wouldn't _ever_ hurt his mate, not intentionally, anyway. He would take it out on whatever had caused his jealousy, in this case, Ron.

The minute she went for her wand that was tucked away, he would see it and stop her. So, she did the only thing that she could think of. She reached up, grabbed his face, pulled it down to her reach, and kissed him. He instantly became less tense, and started kissing her back, running his hands up and down her sides, when they pulled away from each other to breathe, he started kissing down her neck, leaving small love bites, he heard her let out a small moan in pleasure, and grinned against her neck. He pulled away breathing heavily.

As he looked into her eyes, Hermione noticed that his eyes were no longer black, instead, they were the silver colour that appeared when a veela was around his mate. Draco took a deep breath, and let out a purr of contentment, he could smell _her_. He told her this, and she blushed, attempting to cross her legs. He grinned at her embarrassment and leant down to kiss her again, groaning when she put her hands into his hair and pulled. "Draco." She whispered, breaking their kiss and leaning her forehead on his.

They had to stop, _he_ knew, but _he_ wasn't in control. His veela had taken over, and not relinquished the control. He was unsure of if he had released pheromones or not, she didn't look dazed, and seemed as if she was acting of her own accord, so he asked her.

"Fine." She muttered, placing open-mouthed kisses on his jaw, "I'm fine. We should… we should stop, though. Library." She said, "we're in a public place, could get caught."

That snapped Draco out of it, and he pulled away from her, nodding. The idea of anyone seeing his mate _aroused_ displeased him, immensely. "Go up to your room," he told her, "I'll see you tomorrow."

She nodded, and placed a hesitant kiss on his cheek, causing him to let out a purr of contentment, again. She hurried off, and he waited 10 minutes before leaving, on his way to the prefect bathrooms, he was in need of a _cold_ shower.

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The next morning, when Hermione was sat at the Gryffindor table, an owl dropped her off a small package.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, she wasn't expecting anything. She checked it over with a few spells to check that it was safe, and when they let her know that it was, she opened it. When she saw what it was, she gasped.

In front of her, sat a 1st edition copy of Hogwarts, A History. This was _such_ an expensive book, and _so_ rare! She ran her fingers over it gently, and saw something peeking out of the cover, she pulled it out, and saw it was a note.

 _Hermione,_

 _I realise why you were angry, and I'm sorry for both not seeing why last night, and for not telling you about Pansy's scheming._

 _Please accept this book as an apology, I hope for your forgiveness._

 _Yours,_

 _Draco Malfoy._

Hermione smiled, and looked up at Draco, who was staring at her intensely from across the hall. When he saw her grin, he smiled at her in return.

"Who the bloody hell is that from?" Ron exclaimed, pointing to the expensive book and reaching for the note. She yanked the note away from him and scolded, "none of your business, Ronald."

Harry laughed, "yeah, Ron." He teased. Hermione didn't listen for Ron's reply, she instead stroked her hand over the book and smiled. Of course, he couldn't just buy her an expensive gift every time he angered her, but just this once… she could let it go. She'd have to thank him for this, she thought, blushing as she thought of last night and the ways she could thank him.

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Review, if you want! Xx


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

There might be some typos in this chapter, unfortunately, because the laptop I am using has a really weird keyboard, and no spellcheck! I will go back through it once I am able to go on my usual laptop again, but I'm just warning you. Enjoy the chapter! :)

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 **Chapter 14**

The next time Hermione saw Draco was in potions, she knew Snape would take points from Gryffindor if she attempted to talk then, so she whispered, "can I speak to you after potions, please?"

Draco looked at her, trying to see how she was feeling. He had been unsure about buying Hermione the book, as he didn't want it to seem as if he was buying her, but he knew that it would be something that she appreciated, so he decided to take the risk. Her face wasn't revealing anything, but he agreed, anyway, "sure," he whispered back, "we could go up to the astronomy tower, if you like? It's free next."

Hermione nodded her head, and went back to listening to what Snape was saying. Today, they would be brewing a dreamless sleep potion. Hermione smiled, eager to begin the lesson, and upon seeing her small grin, Draco smirked. His smirk grew wider when Snape asked a question about the potion, and Hermione's hand shot up into the air. My mate is such a know-it-all, he thought, rather happy with the idea.

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After the lesson, Hermione went off first without Draco. He assumed it was because she didn't want Potter and Weasley seeing her leave the classroom with him, as they'd probably jump to all the wrong conclusions. Idiots, thought Draco.

Draco got up to the astronomy tower a minute or so after Hermione, but she was already sat down, his gift clutched tightly in her hands. "Do you like it?" he asked, nodding his head toward the expensive book.

"Do I like it? No, I love it!" she exclaimed, smiling at him. He felt satisfied at her words, glad that he had made her happy. That is all he wanted, to make her happy. Well, and for her to accept him, that was definitely something that he yearned for.

The smile faded from her face, and he prepared himself to be yelled at, or something along those lines, but instead, all she said, in a soft voice, was, "but Draco, you can't just buy me something everytime we argue and expect it to be ok. I'm not like pureblood princesses, I will not be brought."

Draco sighed, "it wasn't my intention to buy you, Granger. I wanted to show you that I was sorry," he paused, considering his next words, "that is how my father always showed my mother that he was sorry for screwing up when I was younger. I know, you probably think that because us Malfoy's are rich, presents don't mean anything and we're ok to just throw our money around, but that isn't true." He told her, honestly.

Hermione nodded, "I'm not angry, I just wanted you to know... buying me things is not going to determine whether I reject or accept the veela bond. If I accept you, it will be because I think that we could work, and it will be my choice, nobody elses."

His jaw clenched when she mentioned rejecting the bond, but he listened anyway, "good. I wouldn't want you to accept me for any other reason." He told her, putting emphasis on the 'any' as a double meaning. He meant, of course, that he didn't want her to accept him out of guilt. He knew that it didn't sound like him, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself if she condemned herself to a life with a man she didn't love out of guilt.

Hermione was smart, and understood the double meaning. She smiled softly at Draco, and placed the book carefully back into her bag, before walking to him, so she stood directly in front of him. "I wouldn't." she whispered, bringing her hands up to his face and pressing a small kiss to his lips.

This, however, was done at the wrong time.

"Hermione?" exclaimed Harry, who was absolutely astonished at what he was witnessing, his best mate was snogging his worst enemy! Well, not worst... Harry thought, he supposed that particular title was awarded to Lord Voldemort. But, still! Hermione and Malfoy!

Ron came in through the door just after Harry, but still in time to see what was going on. "Bloody hell," he muttered, "I thought Pansy was having me on!"

"You... What... You knew about this, Ron?"

"I thought Pans was kidding!"

Harry and Ron continued to bicker for a minute, before Harry turned back to the couple who were now stood apart, one smirking, and the other looking rather shocked, "He has you under a love potion, doesn't he?" Harry said.

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"I do not!" Draco exclaimed, he wouldn't force her to do absolutely anything, especially love him!

"Harry!" Hermione scolded, "Draco does not have me under a love potion."

Ron was muttering under his breath, and shaking his head. Nobody was paying him any attention, however. There was a part of Draco that was definitely glad that Potter and Weasley, especially Weasley, knew that Hermione was giving him a chance. He wanted people to know that she was his, or at least would be, if she decided to accept the veela bond.

"Then why in Merlin would you be snogging him?" Harry asked, honestly baffled. Sure, Malfoy wasn't a bad looking bloke, he supposed he understood why girls found his appealing, but Hermione was different. She wasn't the type of girl to be with someone for a shallow reason, such as looks, whoever she was with would have to have a decent personality, something that Draco Malfoy definitely didn't have.

Draco decided to cut in and answer the question for Hermione, "because I'm extremely handsome, Potter. I know that is something you can't grasp the concept of, being a four-eyed idiot who resembles a house elf," he sneered.

"Malfoy! Bloody hell! One, I can speak for myself, and that is definitely not the reason, two, don't call Harry names!" Hermione yelled, "and before I answer any of your questions, how did you know where I was?"

"Oh... erm. The Marauders Map, we... needed your help on some homework and saw you were here." Harry answered hesitantly, he knew that Hermione didn't like it when they looked for her using that map, but they really needed her help!

Ron decided to speak, after just muttering under his breath for several minutes, "and when we looked, he was not up here with you!" Ron shook his head again, "I can't believe Pansy wasn't joking."

"What did she tell you?" Draco hissed at the redhead, only just realising that she could have told Weasley about him being a veela. He did not want Weasley knowing about his situaution!

Ron furrowed his eyebrows, and looked at Hermione, "she told me you two were seeing eachother. I really thought that she was messing around."

"So you've said, Ronald." Hermione replied, pursing her lips.

"and she's told you absolutely nothing else?" Draco said, fishing for more information, and when Ron shook his head in reply, he relaxed. This caused Hermione to look up at him, she was confused, surely he knew that if she accpeted him, she was going to tell her two best friends why she had decided to spend the rest of her life with a boy she had despised only a year ago.

"Hermione, you've still not told us why you're snogging Malfoy!" Harry said, growing impaitent.

"I've decided to give him a chance," Hermione said, "a chance to prove that he and I could work together, in a relationship."

"But why?" Harry pressed on, throwing a displeased look at Malfoy, "it's Malfoy!"

Draco snarled at Potter, but calmed down when he felt his mate place her small hand on his arm in warning.

"I'm giving him a chance because he is a-" she was cut of by Draco's hand over her mouth, and his maneuvering them so that he was in front of her, his back facing Potter and Weasley, and covering her so they were unable to see her.

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

"Telling them why I'm with you!" she said.

"You're not telling them what I am!"

"Yes I am," she whispered, "there is absolutely no way that they'll believe that we're together just because we want to be, Draco. Be reasonable!"  
"I am being reasonable," he replied, "I don't trust them, and I do want to be with you!"

"Yes, because you'll bloody die if you're not!" she hissed, "I'm telling them. If I am going to accept this bond, I'll be telling my best friends why!"

Harry and Ron were straining to hear them, they were speaking in hushed whispers, but they could see that Malfoy was getting a telling off.

Something that niether boys enjoyed, especially from their female friend, she could be vicious sometimes. They heard Malfoy whisper-yell, "fine! Bloody tell them, then!"

Hermione grinned, victoriously. "I will." She turned back to her two best friends, and smiled at them, "I'm giving Draco a chance because he is a veela, and if I don't accept him, he'll die."

It was silent for about 30 seconds, before both boys burst out laughing, "Malfoy is a bloody bird?" exclaimed Ron, "brilliant, just brilliant!"

Harry took his glasses off to wipe away the tears that had leaked from laughing so much and said, "isn't that karma at it's finest?"

They had believed her straight away, of course, this wasn't the sort of thing that Hermione Granger made jokes about.

"I am not a bird, Weasley," Draco snarled, "Veelas are extremely charming, good looking," he paused, smirking at his next word, "sexual beings, especially toward their mates." He pulled Hermione to him, tucking her under his arm, "and in this case, your best friend here, is my mate."

That wiped the smiles off their faces and chased away all traces of laughter, their facial expressions were instead replaced with disgust.

"Malfoy!" Hermione squealed, offended, pushing him away from her. She turned to Harry and Ron, "we have not done that!" She then turned to her annoying veela, "and we won't be, if you keep it up!"

That wiped the smirk from Draco's face, causing one to appear on Hermione's, instead.

"Ha!" laughed Ron, "he's whipped!"

Hermione sighed, "both of you, out, now. Not a word of this to anyone, if you do, i'll spread some of your secrets around the school, don't try me."

Both nodded, knowing that she was one hundred percent serious, and went to leave, before Ron stopped, "Mione... We really need help on that essay..."

"She's not a walking textbook," Draco hissed, defending her, "do it yourselves."

"Malfoy, it's fine. I'll help you both tonight, ok?"

"Thanks, Hermione!" said Harry, as they both left the astronomy tower.

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When they were gone, Hermione turned to Draco, "thank you for letting me tell them," she said.

"I didn't," he huffed, "you nagged and nagged."

"Draco," she called, stepping toward him, "thank you," she reached up on her tip toes, and placed a peck on his cheek. "But if you put me on display like that again, I will hex you. I'm not your property."

Draco clenched his jaw, "you're mine, though."

"I might be, if you can prove this works. However, I am not a possession, and you will never treat me as such." she said, looping her hands around his neck as his hands came to rest on her waist.

"I just wanted to get them to stop bloody laughing," he muttered, "I'm sorry."

"They can be annoying," she agreed, "but they are my best friends, and if you're going to be a part of my life, you're going to have to get used to it."

"Ok." he said, before continuing, "I do want to be with you, you know. Not just because I'd die without you."

Hermione rose her eyebrows, "so if you weren't a veela, you'd still be pursuing me?" she said, not believing it for one second.

He shook his head, "my genes have definitely pushed me towards you, but I'm glad it's you. If you were that awful, I'd just die." he grinned, cheekily.

Hermione laughed, "I don't think that is how the veela gene works, but ok."

"Seriously, imagine if it was someone like Millicent, or... Brown! Merlin, thank Salazar it's you. I want to be with you." he said, leaning his forehead on hers.

"We still have a long way to go, Draco, but I can see a future for us," she said, quickly adding, "that isn't me accepting, it's just me saying... we're... we're doing alright."

Draco nodded, and lifted his head from hers, placing a small kiss on her forehead. "Better get to next peroid," he sighed.

Hermione agreed, and picked her bag up, "want to walk with me to transfiguration?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied, "Oh, I almost forgot, it's a Hogsmeade weekend this weekend, my parents are coming down especially to meet you. We have reservations at one o'clock." he said, walking briskly past her.

Hermione paused in shock, "what? What did you just say?" before hurrying after him, "Draco Malfoy! Get your arse back here!"

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As I said, there are going to be some typos because of this keyboard, so I am sorry. Review, please! xx


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

I'm still on this laptop with the annoying keyboard for now, so excuse any typos! I do re-read through several times to spot and correct as many as I can, but I'm obviously going to be unable to spot them all, sorry! Enjoy the chapter!

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It was 10am on Saturday morning, and Hermione was in the library, reading a book on veelas. It was, however, unhelpful. It wasn't telling her anything that she didn't _already_ know. Some hair fell into her face, and she blew it out of the way.

"Cute."

Hermione looked up from her book and saw Draco standing nearby, smiling at her. She muttered a quiet, "thank you." and went back to reading her book. She was still annoyed that he had arranged dinner with his parents, his extremely prejudiced, muggle-hating parents, without even asking her if that was okay first. It _was not_ okay. She needed more than a few days to prepare for meeting them, she needed to know what to talk about, what not to talk about, she needed to know _everything_. After all, if she accepted the bond, they would be her _in-laws_. Hermione shuddered at the thought. She hadn't met Narcissa Malfoy before, but her experiences with Lucius Malfoy weren't the most pleasant.

"Still annoyed?" Draco asked, nonchalantly. He had moved so that he was sat opposite her, his lean body sprawled out on the library chair.

"Still annoyed?" repeated Hermione, " _of course_ I am still annoyed!" she exclaimed.

Draco rose his eyebrows at her, put his hand in his pocket and pulled out an apple flavoured lollypop, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth.

She ignored him, and his stupid sweet, and carried on speaking, "You notified me only a few days before, telling me I had to have lunch with your parents, Draco! They hate me!"

He pulled the lollypop out of his mouth, "Granger, do you really think I would have agreed to let them meet you, formally," he said, thinking of the first time Hermione met his father in their 2nd year, when he had looked at her parents from across the bookshop with obvious disdain and disgust on his face, "if I thought that they were going to offend or upset you? Merlin witch, I don't _know_ how many times I'm going to have to tell you this, my veela and I are _unable_ to intentionally make you sad. Plus, it gives me a bloody headache when you're upset. It's in both of our best interests for you to be happy."

"Happy." Hermione echoed.

"Yes, Happy. You're not sad right now, either, so don't try it. Pissed off, yeah, but not upset. I can feel it when you're upset." Draco told her, not willing to be manipulated by his clever little mate. He put the lolly back in his mouth, and waiting for her reply.

Hermione sat up straighter in her seat when he mentioned being able to tell when she was upset, "what, you can literally feel my sadness?" she asked, extremely intrigued.

Draco nodded, pulling the lolly out of his mouth again, regrettably. "Yeah, I mean... I know it's not my feelings, I know it's yours. It's separate."

"The books didn't say anything about that." she muttered, gesturing toward the book that she had been reading, that laid on the desk in front of her.

Draco smirked, "the ones that I have do. They tell you absolutely _everything_ there is to know about veelas and their mates."

Hermione gasped, "everything?"

"Everything." Draco confirmed, "and I'd be very willing to let you use them."

A grin made it's way onto Hermione's face, but faded at his next statement.

"On one condition."

Hermione groaned, "what condition?"

"You come to lunch with me and my parents, and absolutely no moaning about it on the way there, or when we're there." He said.

Hermione considered it for a moment, "that is bribery."

"I'm a _Slytherin_." he said, like that explained everything. It sort of did, she supposed, glaring across the table at the cunning, sneaky veela.

"Fine. Deal."

"Great," he said, , swirling his tongue around the lollypop when he had finished his sentence.

Hermione's eyes followed the movement, and when she looked back up to his eyes, she could see that he was amused. "Shut up," she grumbled.

"Didn't say anything, Granger." he smirked, reaching across the table and bopping her on the end of her nose, lightly, with his apple flavoured lolly pop.

"Draco!" she exclaimed, "you're _disgusting_! That has all of your saliva on!" she wiped her nose, narrowing her eyes at the boy sat across from her.

"Oh, get of your high horse, Granger. You've had my tongue _in_ your mouth, so don't go getting all high and mighty about _saliva_."

Hermione spluttered, and then, instead of replying, she went back to ignoring him, grumbling under her breath about how annoying he was.

Draco reached across the table again, this time, however, he gently grabbed her wrist to check the time on her wrist watch. "Quarter to eleven," he muttered, "want to walk down to Hogsmeade now? We could go into a few of the shops before meeting my parents at one." he suggested.

"Yeah, alright." Hermione agreed, "Just let me run up to the Gryffindor tower and stick a jumper on, it's chilly outside."

Draco nodded, "I'll meet you in the entrance hall, then."

They both got up and began getting ready to leave, "Hermione." Draco said.

She looked up quickly, shocked. He hadn't called her her first name before, it was always Granger, so it caught her by surprise. "Oh! Um, yes?"

Draco chuckled at her, moving closer and pushing the hair out of her face, "don't worry about my parents, alright? They're going to be the nicest they've ever been to anyone, to you. After all, whether I live or die is up to you. I'm their only son, the Malfoy name dies with me if I have no children."

"I'm a Gryffindor," she grinned at him, "I'm brave. I can handle your parents."

He laughed, "yes, you can." he placed a kiss on her forehead, and she sighed in content.

"Go on," he muttered, "go get your jumper, or we'll never get down there. I don't want you to be cold."

She nodded, and pulled away, intending on making her way to the Gryffindor tower to do just that.

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When Hermione got down to the entrance hall, she approached Draco, smiling at him as he saw her, and gave her a grin in return. "Ready?" he asked, reaching out for her and tucking her under his arm.

"Yeah, let's go," she said, and just as they were about to being walking, they heard a high pitch, bitter laugh.

"Honestly, Draco." Sneered the voice of Astoria Greengrass, "you blew _me_ off for _her_?"

Hermione was about to argue back with the rude fifth year, but Draco beat her to it, "Greengrass, I snogged you, in a broom closet. _Once_. Nearly a _year_ ago, piss off." Astoria's friend's giggled at this remark from Draco, some friends they are, he thought. You'd think they'd have _her_ back, being her _friends_ , and all.

Hermione felt jealousy wash over her at Draco's words, but pushed it way. She had _no_ right, they hated each other the. Things were different now.

Draco got ready to turn around again, but froze at the next words that left Greengrass's lips, and then was instantly consumed with rage.

"Fine. Have fun with her, then. You're a blood traitor, Malfoy. You deserve the _mudblood_!"

Hermione pulled way from the safety of her veela's arms, and pulled out her wand. She'd teach the prejudiced little _bitch_ a lesson. There were no teachers around, and not many witnesses. No one would call her that _awful_ slur again, and get away with it. She sent a quick, wordless spell at the other girl, and Astoria's lips, once pink and pouty, turned an awful dark brown colour, and stuck together. Hermione stalked toward the girl, "if I ever hear that word leave your disgusting lips again, you'll be getting much more than a temporary spell to them!" she spat, "and before you run off and tell the professor's that it was me who hexed you, think about the punishment you'd get for calling me a mudblood."

With that, Hermione turned back to Draco, grabbed his hand, and began their walk to Hogsmeade.

After about five minutes of walking in silence, Draco broke it. "I was going to defend you, you know. You were just so quick." He chuckled, he had been baffled, one minute she had been by his side, the next she was hexing Greengrass, and giving her a good telling off. Watching his mate defend herself more than adequately had calmed Draco and his veela down.

"I can defend myself," she said softly, "but thank you."

"How long will the spell last?" Draco asked, curious.

"Only an hour or so." Hermione said, a grin coming onto her face when she pictured Astoria Greengrass worrying over how long her lips would appear so disgusting.

Draco nodded, "probably best that it was you, and not me. I would have done her serious harm, I think."

"Probably," replied Hermione, "Veelas are very protective of their mates."

"I know." Draco said, gazing down at the pretty witch. He definitely knew.

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When the pair arrived at Hogsmeade, they definitely acquired some stares from their fellow students. Neither were surprised by this, though. After all, they were Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. Gryffindor and Slytherin. Muggleborn and Pureblood. No one could be blamed for staring, so they just ignored them, and walked around Hogsmeade.

Draco gazed at the Quidditch supply shop, longingly. He knew that Hermione wasn't the biggest fan of the sport, and therefore probably wouldn't enjoy going in the shop very much, so he didn't suggest they go in.

Hermione, however, noticed his stare, "want to go in there?" she asked, nodding her head toward the shop.

"Yeah! I mean, if it's alright with you?" he asked.

Hermione nodded, and they headed toward the shop.

When they were in there, Hermione waited by the door as Draco browsed. A few minutes after being in there, Hermione heard the door open, and two sets of footsteps. She turned around, and saw Ron and Pansy. She smiled at the couple, "hello."

"Hi, Mione." Ron grinned, "just wait here, Pans. I swear, I'll only be a few minutes. Ten, at the most." He smiled, and walked off into the shop.

Hermione watched him go, and then turned back to Pansy. "You in here with Draco?" Pansy asked.

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, we've only been in a few minutes, though." she replied.

It was silent again for 30 seconds or so, before Pansy spoke again. "I just wanted to thank you again, for speaking to me about Ron. And for not telling anyone about..."

"It's okay." Hermione smiled, "I'm glad to see you both happy."

Pansy smiled at the Gryffindor, but didn't reply as Draco walked around the corner, a bag of Quidditch stuff in his hands. "Afternoon, Pans." he grinned at her, "Ready, Granger?" he asked.

Hermione nodded, and said a quick, "goodbye," to Pansy before following Draco out of the shop.

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After some more browsing around the shop, Hermione checked her watch to see that it was ten to one. She told Draco this, "we better get to the restaurant, then." he smiled at her, leading her toward where they were having lunch.

They got to the restaurant with five minutes to spare, and Hermione saw Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy sat at a table inside, through one of the windows.

"Ready?" Draco asked, putting his hand on the small of Hermione's back.

Hermione breathed in some air, and looked up at him. "Nope." she replied, smiling nervously, "but let's go in, anyway," and they walked through the door.

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Review, please! xx


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

I get my normal laptop back tomorrow, thank god. It's been so annoying using the one I currently have!

Enjoy the chapter, reviews are welcome. ;)

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 **Chapter 16**

Hermione and Draco approached the table, Draco guiding her by putting his hand on the small of her back.

Narcissa Malfoy saw the couple approaching, and tapped her husbands arm to tell him. Both of the Malfoy's stood up to greet their son, and hopefully, their future daughter-in-law.

"Afternoon, Mother, Father." Draco said when they arrived at the table, "I'd like to formally introduce you to Hermione." He smiled down at the witch.

"Hello," Hermione said, pleasantly, "It's nice to meet you," she put her hand out to shake, which Lucius took, and replied.

"Quite," the older man said, looking down at the witch.

Hermione's smile faltered, but she plastered it back on her face quickly, pulled her hand away, and offered it to Narcissa to shake. However, the older witch smiled at the muggleborn, "I've been waiting to meet you since Draco told us what you were to him," and pulled Hermione into a light hug, surprising her three companions. Narcissa Malfoy was a cold woman, not one to throw around smiles easily, let alone _hugs_.

Hermione hesitantly hugged her back, before pulling away and looking at Draco, who was torn between being angry at his father for the cold greeting he gave his mate, or being completely baffled by his mother. He knew, of course, that his mother would be pleasant and do her best to make Hermione to feel comfortable, but to _hug_ her? Completely unexpected! "Shall we sit?" asked Draco, gesturing to the table that his parents had previously been sat at, waiting for them to arrive.

"Of course," Lucius replied, he went to help his wife into her seat, but she shrugged him off. _Ah_ , he thought, immediately knowing that she was probably annoyed with his behaviour toward the muggleborn, well, he thought, at least I wasn't _rude_.

Narcissa ignored her husbands attempts at being a gentleman, but smiled when Draco pulled Hermione's chair out for her, before sitting down himself. She was proud to have raised a son with such impeccable manners around the people who really _mattered_. She looked at her husband, and then to Miss Granger, who sat opposite her. That witch was someone who _mattered_ immensely, Lucius _knew_ this, so why greet her so coldly, Narcissa fumed.

The waiter brought their menus over, and after a minute or so, Lucius looked up from his menu and to his wife instead, and thought back to the conversation that they had had before Draco and Miss Granger had arrived.

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 _"Now, Lucius," his wife had said as they sat down, "I've warned you before, and I'm warning you again, you need to treat that girl with complete respect,"_

 _"But-"_

 _"No interruptions! She needs to be treated kindly, and with respect, because our son... our only son... his life is in her hands. When she makes this decision, do you think it's going to be in our favour if she believes that she is going to have the in-laws from hell?" Narcissa said. "Plus, you said in your letter to Draco that you accepted it."_

 _"I do accept it, it doesn't mean I have to like the chit. Severus has told me all about her. She's... bossy, smart and doesn't know when to sit down and shut up!" Lucius exclaimed._

 _Narcissa rose her eyebrows at him, elegantly, and said, "Lucius, dear. Have I ever been the type to... as you said it, 'sit down and shut up'?"_

 _"No, you certainly have not," he chuckled, thinking about how his wife had absolutely no problem telling him how it was and giving her opinion to anyone, "but you're different, you're my Cissa," he said, fondly, smiling softly at the woman._

 _"and if we're lucky, that witch that you're refusing to respect will be Draco's Hermione," she told her husband, ignoring the look of distaste that appeared on his face at her words, "I'm not surprised it's someone like her that his veela took a liking to. He's always admired you, and why would he not grow up wanting a relationship like his parents?" she asked, rhetorically, "we've a healthy relationship, we're very happy, we love each other, despite the way we present ourselves in the public eye and what other people may think, and have raised Draco to know this." The Malfoy's may seem cold, aloof and emotionless in public, but they were Slytherins, and they knew appearing this way was to their best advantage. They were loyal to each other and the one's they cared for, and that was all that mattered, as far as Narcissa was concerned._

 _"We're Malfoys, Lucius, and we'll do whatever it takes to ensure our sons survival. Even if that means treating someone you're not keen on with respect, do I make myself clear?"_

 _Lucius sighed, "Yes, Cissa. We'll ensure that the chit accepts our son."_

 _Narcissa smiled, and placed a hand over her husbands, "good, and then hopefully one day, she too, will be a Malfoy._

 _Lucius grimaced, but nodded anyway. "Hopefully."_

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"Do you know what you're going to order, Miss Granger?" Lucius asked politely, earning a discreet smile from his wife, who was sat next to him.

Hermione looked up when her name was said, "oh, Hermione, please," she said, feeling like she was in a formal meeting being addressed by her last name, she wanted to feel calm, like she was having a nice meal with her... boyfriend? Is Draco my boyfriend? Hermione thought. Anyway, with Draco's parents.

Lucius nodded, and went to reply, but was cut off by his wife, "well, then you simply must call us by our given names, then," Narcissa said, "Isn't that right, Lucius?"

"Yes."

Hermione nodded, and Draco grinned, happy that this was going well, so far.

"Well, to answer your question, Mr. Mal- um... Lucius, I'm unsure, I've never eaten here before, and whilst I'm not a picky eater, I don't want to order something I don't like, it'd be a complete waste, and it's... pricey here." Hermione said, her eyes shooting back down to scan the menu.

"You need not pay for yourself, Granger," Draco said, and when Hermione went to protest, he turned back to his father, "you know, father, I'm unsure of what to order either, do you have any suggestions?" he asked. He sensed Hermione glaring at him from the corner of his eye, but just smirked.

Lucius was smiling, on the inside, of course. He was definitely a food lover, and prided himself on making good food recommendations. "Seeing as you're a seafood fan, Draco, I'd recommend you try the crab-stuffed lobster tail as a main, you enjoyed lobster when you had it in Prague, so I imagine you'll enjoy that," he told his son, "and you, Hermione, are you a seafood fan?"

Hermione wrinkled her nose, "no, definitely not, I do eat meat, though. Just not seafood."

Narcissa smiled at her from across the table, "no, nor do I. Never have, and I never will."

"Cissa, you refuse to even _try_ it." he said, amused.

"and I won't!"

As his parents were having their little discussion, Draco turned to Hermione and whispered in her ear, "bet you've never tried it, either."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "I have so, my parents made me try some crab the summer before 3rd year, and I hated it."

Draco hummed, and stared down at his mate, they remained having eye contact for several seconds before Draco winked at the witch, lazily, and caused her to blush and look away. When they looked back to his parents, they saw that they had finished their discussion about seafood, and were looking at Draco and Hermione, amused.

"Um.. I-" Hermione stuttered, then let out a small laugh, "sorry," she said, "do you have any recommendations, then? If not, I'll probably just get something simple, that I know for sure that I'll enjoy," she said to Lucius.

"Of course, you say you're a meat eater, yes?" at Hermione's nod, he carried on, "then the filet mignon with balsamic glaze, perhaps?"

Hermione scanned her menu, read what it was and nodded, "sounds lovely, thank you."

"Great," said Narcissa, "are we ready to order, then?"

At the confirmation of the others, Narcissa called the waiter over, and placed their orders.

"So, Hermione," Narcissa says, "why don't you tell us about _you_?"

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Hermione smiled, but on the inside she was panicking. I don't know what to tell them! She thought, she wasn't the brightest witch of her age for nothing, though, and was able to quickly come up with something to say.

She smiled prettily at the two eldest Malfoy's, "well, I'm a muggleborn, as you probably know," she said, and when they didn't say anything, but instead motioned for her to continue, she carried on, "I'm a bit of a bookworm and-" she was cut off by a scoff coming from her left, she turned to Draco and rose her eyebrows.

"A bit?" he chucked, "Hermione, you're more than a _bit_ of a bookworm!" He had seen that she was struggling, his parents probably hadn't, as they hadn't known her for the past 6 years, but she hadn't been talking with the same confidence in her voice the way she did when answering a question in one of their lessons, so Draco had decided to step in and help her.

Hermione laughed, "fine, I'm more than a bit of a bookworm."

"You'd simply love the library in the Malfoy Manor, then. There are some very rare books there, Lucius is very proud of it, aren't you?" Narcissa said.

Lucius nodded, "I am," he cleared his throat, "have you read anything by Arthur Stonemn?" That particular author was famous in the wizarding world, but his books were rare, and Hermione had only read one book by him.

"I've had the pleasure of reading The History of Goblins, but his books are ever so hard to get a hold of, and they seem to be becoming more and more rare as time goes on."

"We have four or five of his books in our library," Lucius told the young witch.

Draco grinned at the way her eyes lit up, "four or five?" Hermione repeated, in disbelief, "how?"

"Malfoy ancestors have added to the collection over the years," Lucius told her, her considered his next words carefully, "you'll have to come and visit in the Christmas holidays, you'd be welcome, and I'm sure Draco would love to show you around."

Hermione turned to Draco, and he nodded, "that would be fine with me." She grinned at that.

"Thank you! Oh, I've been wanting to get my hands on something else by Arthur Stonemn since I read The History of Goblins in our 2nd year, Draco!"

Lucius's eyes widened, "your 2nd year?" He exclaimed, "Arthur Stonemn's writing is extremely sophisticated, far more than a 2nd year should be able to read."

"She's a bookworm, Father, always has been, and probably always will be," Draco said fondly, putting his arm over the back of Hermione's chair.

Narcissa smiled sneakily, "well, you'll be welcome in our library anytime. Maybe one day, you'll live at the Malfoy Manor and it will be at your complete disposal."

Hermione tensed at that, and upon feeling her do so, Draco removed his arm from the back of her chair and sat up straight. "Mrs Malf- Narcissa, I haven't-" she cut herself off, "Draco did you tell them that I haven't..."

"We know that you've not accepted the bond, Miss Granger," Lucius said, "sorry, Hermione." He corrected himself, "Narcissa is just mentioning this, after all, it could be your future, should you decide to accept my son and save his life."

Hermione looked down at her lap, she knew this would come up, of course, but would have preferred that it didn't, "Draco and I are... we're trying. To see if we can work together, in a relationship. We've not always gotten on so well, you see."

Narcissa laughed, "of course you'll work, you're _soulmates_. He is perfect for you, as you are for him."

Hermione blanched, "I thought that Draco's veela picked it's mate the same way animals do," Hermione said, confused, "that is what the books said."

"What books have you been reading?" Draco said, offended. "I'm not an animal!"

"I did not say you were! I can see that you're human!"

"You said tha-"

"Draco, stop." Narcissa said, "that is a common belief of those who don't carry the gene," she looked to Hermione, "a completely _false_ belief."

"Veela mates are soulmates," Lucius said, "you _will_ work in a relationship. You wouldn't have been chosen as his mate, if not."

Hermione nodded, and was saved by answering by their food arriving at the table.

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"Speaking of your future, Hermione, do you know what you want to do when you leave Hogwarts?" Narcissa asked, placing a forkful of her meal into her mouth and waiting for the reply.

"Yes, I want to work at the ministry, in what department, however, I am unsure."

Lucius perked up at this, a daughter-in-law at the ministry? That sounded beneficial. "Magical law, perhaps?"

"Oh, no. That's not for me!" Hermione chewed her food, and then carried on speaking, "I was thinking something to do with the rights of magical creatures." she said.

Draco spoke up, " _Ah_. Spew."

"It is not spew! It's S.P.E.W, and we're not discussing that right now." Hermione huffed, still annoyed that she hadn't made much progress in terms of the house elves.

Lucius allowed an amused smile to come onto his face, and looked at Narcissa, who was watching her son and his mate bicker over the table.

"I was also thinking of politics," Hermione said, and Lucius's attention was straight back on her, "maybe try to work my way onto the Wizengamont later in my career." She mused.

"The Malfoy name would make that considerably easier for you." Lucius said.

"I imagine it would." Replied Hermione, staring him straight in the eyes. Lucius smirked, and went back to eating his dinner.

Draco, however, was thinking of Granger not being a Granger anymore, but a Malfoy. He grinned at the thought, he and his veela very happy with the idea of it. It would be another way to show the world that she was _his_ , and he was _hers_.

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By the time that they left the restaurant, it was nearly 3:30pm. Hermione and Draco were walking his parents to The Three Broomsticks, where they would floo back to the Malfoy Manor.

When they got outside, Lucius was saying goodbye to his son, when Narcissa pulled Hermione aside.

"Draco is my son, and I don't want him to die." She said.

Hermione nodded, "of course you don't."

"I can't sway your decision, I know. It would be unfair, but he is my son, I am his mother, and I won't not try. You'll be treated the best you can imagine, and he will love you, and you him in return. You're soulmates, Hermione. I know that he has not always been the kindest boy to you, and he may have made the first few years of your life in this world harder, but he will live to make it up to you, I promise." Narcissa looked away from Hermione, and over to Draco, who was stood talking to his father, "he's my baby. I can't imagine losing him. When we realised he had the gene... I was terrified. Knowing that if he succeeds, he'll have a witch as kind, and smart and as loving as you almost makes it worth it."

"Narcissa..."

"He won't always let you know how he's feeling, he is very alike Lucius in that way. Showing emotion can be perceived as weakness. But I promise, he will love you if you offer him the chance to do so."

Before Hermione could reply, Narcissa gave her a quick hug, said goodbye to her son, and Draco was back by her side.

"Not so bad, was it?"

"No." Hermione said, softly, looking at the door that Narcissa had just disappeared through.

"I can't believe you compared me to an animal." Draco muttered.

"It's what the books said!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, as soon as you read the _correct_ books, the better."

Hermione was quiet for a moment, before quietly asking, "are we really soulmates?"

"Yes." Draco answered, simply. He brought his arms around the small witch and kissed the top of her head as she put her arms around his middle and hummed in contentment.

"You're warm." She muttered into his chest, and felt it vibrate as he laughed.

"Let's get back to the castle." He said, and Hermione nodded in agreement.

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"Do you want to go to the room of requirement with me?" Hermione asked as they walked back into the castle.

Draco looked at her, happy that she wanted to spend more time with him despite spending the whole day with him, already. "Yeah, come on then," he grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her along, their laughter filling the halls behind them.

It was Hermione who decided what form the room would take this time, but just before she went in, she turned to him, causing him to stop.

"What?" he asked.

"The first Wednesday of the Christmas holidays, you've been invited to my house to have dinner with my parents," she grinned, cheekily, and then disappeared through the doors to the room of requirement.

"What? Granger!" he said, following her through. He froze when he entered the room, however. He looked around, astonished at what he was seeing.

Well, he thought, I can guess what she was thinking when she asked the room to change to her needs.

 _I need somewhere to hide from my veela._

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Review, please! xx


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Hi! So, I have my laptop back, which means the keyboard is much easier to type on, yay! Also, I'd just like to remind everyone that I'm _new_ to writing fanfiction, so I'm literally just exploring the whole thing at the moment. This fic is therefore an experiment, not anything too serious! I'm unsure of where this story is going, but I predict that it's going to have _at least_ 20 chapters. Thank you for all being patient with me as I learn, and your reviews really do mean a lot to me, as does you taking the time to read what I write.

Anyway, on with the chapter! :)

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 **Chapter 17**

Draco looked around the room, that had taken the form of a _very_ large library, with multiple bookshelves that could be used to hide behind. Draco groaned. "Granger!" he yelled, "come on, come out!"

He heard a laugh from somewhere in the maze of shelves, "come and find me, Malfoy!" she called out.

"Really, Granger? What are we, first years?"

Hermione laughed again in response, and waited for him to give in. A minute or so later, she heard him huff out a breath of air, and stalk toward the shelves to find her, muttering about her immaturity and how they could be doing something more interesting with the time.

Hermione stayed close by to him, close enough that she could keep an eye on him, but far enough away that he wouldn't be able to see her.

"Granger, I know that you're nearby," he drawled, "I can sense you." Although he was acting although he was annoyed by having to find her, he and his veela were actually rather excited by the chase. He paused briefly when he heard some shuffling coming from behind him, and smirked. He carried on as though he hadn't heard anything, every now and then calling out her name.

"Aren't you getting bored of this?" he said, his voice laced with amusement.

He received no reply, of course, and turned down another isle, intending on going around and turning to the one where he had heard the noise coming from and surprising her. He made no noise for several minutes, hoping that she had lost sight of him, when he saw her. She was leaning her head around the end of one of the shelves, obviously looking for him. He smirked, and crept up behind her, slowly and silently.

As he arrived right behind her, he grabbed her hips, a pulled her back against him, whispering in her ear, "got you."

She jumped, screaming out, "Merlin, Draco!"

He laughed, and released her hips, stepping back, "scared you, did I?"

"Yes, you bloody well did!" she exclaimed, hitting him lightly in the chest, "you've knocked at least 10 years off my life, I reckon!"

"Don't be dramatic," he drawled, rolling his eyes at the witch. "Now, what was this about the Christmas holidays and your parents?" he asked.

Hermione raised her head a bit, "you heard me," she said, staring him straight in the eyes, almost daring him to object against the meeting.

"you want me to meet them." He stated.

"Well, yes. They're my parents. Soulmate or not, they need to approve, if I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you."

Draco nodded, and went to talk again, but instead, Hermione carried on speaking, "I haven't decided that I am, by the way." She paused before carrying on, "Just because some book says we're soulmates. I've never believed in all that divination and fate stuff, and like I've said before, if I decide to accept you, it will be my choice. No one else's, not yours, not your mothers, and not fates."

"I know, Granger," Draco said, jaw clenched, "speaking of those books, I'll give them to you tomorrow, at breakfast."

"Okay, thank you." Hermione smiled.

Draco nodded again, and then grinned, "so, what do I get for finding you?"

"you get to walk me back to the Gryffindor Tower," she said, raising her eyebrows when he looked disappointed, "why? What were you expecting?" she asked, innocently. Although they had both known what he had wanted, and she was obviously teasing him about it.

Draco didn't say anything, but his face said it all for him.

"You're not getting _anything_ like that, Malfoy." She told him, "one, you can't control your pheromones, yet. Two, I wouldn't even do anything with a _normal_ boyfriend this early on, and you're definitely _not_ a normal boyfriend."

Draco felt his face flame a bit, "Merlin, Granger. I only wanted a kiss, or something, not a full-blown shag!"

Hermione shrugged her shoulders, "are you walking me to my common room, or not?"

Draco sighed, "yeah, come on, you."

They walk to the Gryffindor Tower was pretty silent, and after they had said goodbye at the portrait, Hermione whispered the password to the Fat Lady so that Draco wouldn't hear. As she went through the portrait, she turned around and she grinned at him, almost mischievously.

As they portrait swung closed, Draco shook his head, "stubborn little tease," he muttered, earning him a gasp from the Fat Lady.

"I've never been too keen on you Slytherins, always so sneaky!"

Draco rose his eyebrows at the portrait, amused.

"Don't look at me like that, you! You've no business being here, you're no Gryffindor. Off you go," she said, dismissing him.

Draco chuckled, turning around and making his way to the dungeons, his head filled with thoughts of the pretty witch that he had the pleasure of calling his mate.

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The next morning, at breakfast, Draco went straight to the Gryffindor table to give Hermione the books that he had promised her in return for attending lunch with his parents the previous day. It was a Sunday, and only 8:30am, so the Great Hall was relatively empty as he approached his rival house's table.

When he got to where Hermione was sat, he placed the books in front of her. When she smiled in thanks and gestured for him to sit down, he found that he couldn't bring himself to do so. It felt like some sort of… _betrayal_ to sit at the Gryffindor table. When he told Hermione this, she laughed, and as _cheesy_ as it sounds, her laugh sounded like music to his ears.

"That's silly," she commented.

Draco shrugged, still standing and refusing to sit. "What are you doing today?" he asked.

"Oh, just spending the day with Luna Lovegood." Hermione smiled.

Draco was disappointed he she wouldn't be spending the day with him, but knew that she couldn't dedicate _all_ of her time to him, no matter what he and his veela wanted. She had a life _before_ him, and she would continue to have that life _after_ him. The only differences would be that she would either be tied to him for the rest of that life, or he wouldn't be in it, at all. Not as a school rival, or a partner. He simply wouldn't be here anymore. He wondered if it would hurt when he died, if she decided to reject the bond. He hoped that it wouldn't. "Oh alright."

"What about you? What are you doing today?" she asked, politely.

"I don't really have any plans," he said, "Theo's busy, and Pans is probably with Weasley, so I might see what Blaise is up to."

"Sounds good," Hermione said, looking down at her watch, then back to Draco, "well, I need to go and meet Luna, now." She told him, reaching for the books he had given her and placing them carefully in her bag, "thanks for these."

"Anytime," he smiled, "want me to walk you to meet Lovegood?"

Hermione smirked, "no, I'm good."

Draco nodded, "well, I'm going to go."

"Bye," Hermione replied, not really paying him any attention as she did the zip up on her bag.

Draco frowned, "right, bye then," he said, turning around to walk over to the Sytherin table.

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"Morning, Blaise," Draco said, sitting down across from the other Slytherin.

"Morning," Blaise replied, pouring himself a drink.

"What are your plans for the day?" Draco asked.

"Was just going to go down to the quidditch pitch and have a fly, it's free today." Blaise told him.

"Great," Draco said, "I'll join you."

"Not with Granger?" Blaise was surprised, Draco had been pretty busy lately, not that he could be blamed, if Blaise had his life depending on a swot like Granger, he'd certainly be spending as much time as possible around her trying to get her to accept him.

"Nah," Draco replied, "she's with Looney Lovegood today."

Blaise scoffed, "what does it tell you when a girl would rather spend her time with _Looney Lovegood_ , rather than you, Malfoy?" he joked, a grin on his face. The cheeky smile slipped off his face when he saw the glare that Draco was sending his way, "mate, I was joking."

"Whatever, just hurry up and eat. I want to go." He grumbled.

Blaise rose his eyebrows in amusement, but did begin eating a bit faster. He did not want to make an unmated veela angry. He had seen Draco angry before, and that was bad enough, couple that with his veela gene? _No thanks_ , thought Blaise, taking a sip of his drink.

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Hermione approached Luna, who was sat down on the grass, her legs crossed, reading a copy of The Quibbler, "Hi, Luna."

The blond looked up, "Hello, Hermione."

"What are we doing today?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, I thought we might study nargles in the library. I hear that you have access to the restricted section, I bet there's some books on them in there," Luna answered.

That was something that sounded _very_ unappealing to Hermione, whilst she'd usually agree to research something, and probably enjoy it, she didn't want to do it when they were researching a creature that _did not exist._ "Oh!" Exclaimed Hermione, "as fun as that sounds, Luna, I know that there is not," she lied.

Luna stood up, folding her copy of The Quibbler in half, "you've checked?" Luna asked.

"Um, yes. There's nothing, sorry."

"Pity," Luna said, "well, I suppose we could do something else," Luna said, dreamily, "although I have to do an essay for Snape that is due tomorrow, so as long as we're done by 3ish."

"I could help you with that," Hermione suggested, "we could go to the library and do it, and perhaps after, go for a walk."

Luna nodded, "okay, let's go."

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After finishing the potions essay, Hermione and Luna were walking on Hogwarts grounds, Luna mostly rambling about some non-existent creature as Hermione tried to explain that they were _not real._

"How is Draco?" Luna asked.

It was common knowledge around Hogwarts that she and Draco were a couple, so Hermione wasn't started by the question, "oh, he is well, thank you for asking."

"Have you accepted the bond, yet?"

 _That_ did startled Hermione, "what?"

"The veela bond, have you accepted it?"

"Luna! How… How do you know about that?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Well, other than the fact that he clearly has a lot of the traits, and he's suddenly interested in you, someone who he has previously disliked," Luna said, completely unfazed, "I heard his two friends, Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini discussing it."

Hermione thought about denying it, but she knew that although Luna was _odd_ , she wasn't _stupid_. She was a Ravenclaw, afterall. "I haven't, no. Luna, you cannot tell a soul!"

"I wont. Are you going to accept him?"

"I haven't decided yet," Hermione answered, smiling.

"I hear sex between veela mates is very good." Luna said, dreamily.

Hermione blushed, "Merlin, Luna."

Luna smiled, "Is he a good kisser? I suppose you've kissed him? Did he release pheromones?"

Hermione's face became redder, "yes, yes, and yes." She said, happy to be discussing it with someone, she couldn't with Harry and Ron for obvious reasons, she didn't feel close enough to Pansy and Ginny had been _so_ busy lately. "I mean it, Luna, you can't tell anyone."

"I won't. Oh look, there he is now, with his friend, Blaise Zabini." Luna pointed out, looking up into the sky where the two boys were riding their brooms.

Hermione hadn't even noticed that they were heading toward the quidditch pitch, too intent on ensuring that Luna not tell anyone Draco's secret.

Draco must have seen them, or sensed her presence, perhaps, as soon enough, he was landing in front of them, Blaise following behind.

"Granger," he smirked.

"Malfoy, Zabini."

"Hello Draco, Hello Blaise," Luna greeted, smiling at the two.

Draco nodded at her, and Blaise said, "Lovegood," in greeting.

Luna smiled, "Hermione tells me you're a good kisser, Draco."

Hermione's face instantly flamed red, "Luna! Shut up!" She hissed, but the blond girl just smiled in response.

Blaise chuckled at the girl's bluntness, amused.

"Oh, does she, now?" Draco smirked, looking at Hermione and not breaking eye contact.

"She _asked_! I didn't... Oh, Merlin." She was so embarrassed!

"Don't be embarrassed, Granger, you're not so bad, either," he teased.

"Not _so_ bad?" Hermione said in disbelief, she was _offended_.

"Brilliant," he corrected, winking at the witch.

Blaise, having had enough of their flirting, said, "Draco, mate, are we just going to stand around or go back to flying?"

Draco didn't reply, he didn't even look around to Blaise, instead looking at Hermione, "will you stay? You and Loon-" he cut himself of to correct himself, "you and Lovegood could watch us fly."

Hermione was about to decline, she wasn't interested in watching people fly around on brooms with the possibility of one of them falling and getting hurt. _People_ weren't supposed to fly, if they were, they would have been given _wings_! She considered Draco for a moment, the books said that male veela sprouted wings. She dismissed the thought, however. He was a _person_ , not a bird.

Luna butted in, though, "that sounds delightful, we'll go up to the stands."

Draco smiled, mounting his broom as Blaise did the same, "great."

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After watching the two fly for about 10 minutes, Hermione turned to Luna, "why'd you say yes?" she asked, frowning.

Luna didn't take her eyes off the brooms, "I've found that I quite like looking at Blaise Zabini. He has a nice face and a very appealing body. Why would I not accept an invitation to watch him?"

Hermione's mouth formed an 'o', and instead of replying, she turned back to watching Draco and Blaise fly. What Luna had said had surprised her, she didn't know Luna noticed things like _that_.

The thought fled her mind, however, when she looked at Draco and saw him staring at her with a smile on his face from the air. She smiled back, and motioned for him to pay attention. The last thing she needed was for him to fall!

"Blaise also has a nice bum," Luna told Hermione, "it's a shame that I can't see it from here."

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This chapter is quite uneventful, it's more of just a filler chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to review ;)


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend! I haven't had the time to re-read through this and edit thoroughly, so please excuse any mistakes! I'm attending a wedding party tonight, so I've been getting ready for that.

I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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 **Chapter 18**

The following Friday, Draco was on his way to his next lesson, when his name was called out.

"Draco!" Luna called, "Draco Malfoy!"

Draco groaned, and turned to face the odd witch, "Lovegood," he drawled.

"Hello, Draco."

It was silent for a few seconds, before Draco realised she wasn't going to tell him why she had stopped him without him asking, "is there something you wanted?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about Hermione," Luna told him.

This immediately interested him, "what about her?" He asked, "is she okay?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, Hermione is fine," Luna said, "well, if you consider fine being suspicious of absolutely anything that she can't research in a book. Only yesterday, I was trying to tell her about the progress my father and I made over the summer in proving the existence of the crumple-horned snorkack, but she was having none of it! Extremely stubborn," Luna smiled.

Draco had to agree with her about the stubborn part, but the crumple-horned-whatever? He too, was having none of it. "Right, erm. You said you wanted to talk about Granger?"

"Yes."

Draco sighed in annoyance when she didn't elaborate, _again_. "What about her, then?"

"I just wanted to let you know that I think she'll accept you and your veela. I can't imagine Hermione letting anyone die, let alone someone she has known for years. Even if you were a bit awful to her when you were younger."

Draco had frozen the minute she had mentioned veelas. Granger had told _Looney Lovegood_ , as well? Without _asking_ him? "How the hell do you know?" Draco sneered at the Ravenclaw, although his sneer didn't seem to bother or intimidate her, like he had been hoping.

Instead she just smiled at him, "I overheard your friends talking about it. Don't worry, Hermione asked me not to tell anyone, and she's my friend, so I won't."

"What _friends_?" He hissed, already plotting how to get said friends back for carelessly discussing his situation when they could be heard. Merlin, they _were_ heard! He knew it had to be either Parkinson, Nott or Zabini, as they were the only people he considered friends that knew.

"Theodore and Blaise, of course," she told him, of-fucking-course, thought Draco. Luna continued, "Blaise was saying how he pitied that you were stuck with Hermione, and how it was going to annoy you that she was smarter than you. I _must_ say, I do agree with him there, she _is_ smarter than you, and I imagine you'll find that irritating. But Theodore said that you could get over it because Hermione wasn't too bad to look and, and had a nice arse, plus your conversations would never be dull."

"Nott said Granger has a nice arse?" Draco said. What the fuck is Nott doing looking at my mates behind? He fumed.

"Yes, and she does, have you seen it?"

His anger at Blaise and Theo was momentarily forgotten as Luna said this. Should he be pissed off? He wasn't, so he supposed his veela wasn't threatened by Lovegood, thank Merlin. "Er, yes. I've seen it."

Luna nodded, satisfied with his answer. "Anyway," she said, "that's all I wanted, just to let you know that I think Hermione is going to accept you. Oh, and I'm not going to tell anyone that you're a veela."

Draco allowed a small smile to come onto his face at her words, "thanks, Lovegood."

She smiled back at him, "you're welcome. Oh, but I wonder if you might do something for me?"

Draco was confused, what could _he_ do for Luna Lovegood? Fund her and her father's next trip searching for proof of some made up magical creature, perhaps? That was fair, he supposed, she was keeping her mouth shut about his veela gene, and it wasn't like he and his family couldn't afford it. "Sure, what is it?"

He waited for her to ask for what he had thought she was going to ask for, but instead she came out with something that completely shocked him.

"Please tell Blaise Zabini that I think that he has a very nice bum."

It took Draco a few seconds to reply, "er, alright. I'll do that."

"Great," Luna smiled, dreamily, and turned around and went back in the direction she had come from.

Draco stood in silence for about a minute, before he started laughing.

Looney Lovegood fancies Zabini! Brilliant, he thought, absolutely fucking brilliant.

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Draco was late to his class, thanks to being stopped in the corridor on his way here by Lovegood, but he didn't mind. He sat alone in this class, Theo and Blaise were seated across the room from him. He and his veela were happy, if one of her friends, a friend that knew her quite well, thought that she was going to accept him, then he was going to listen to what she had to say. He wasn't getting his hopes up, of course, as things could change.

He thought about what Theo had said about Granger's bum, and found he wasn't consumed with anger and jealousy, like he thought he would have been. Perhaps it was because he knew that one, Granger _wouldn't_ touch Theo, and two, Theo wouldn't betray _him_ like that.

He still had to deal with his two best male friends, though. They could not be discussing his veela gene where they could be heard. It was _way_ too risky. If that got out, people would think he was pursuing Granger just so he wouldn't die. Although that was the case when he first discovered that she was his mate, he found that it wasn't anymore. He enjoyed the witch's company, thought she was funny and beautiful, and whilst he definitely didn't love her, not yet anyway, he really liked her and could see himself loving her in the future. He and his family would also be seen as hypocrites, preaching blood purity for centuries, only to be tainted themselves. He didn't want either of those things.

At the end of the class, his two friends approached him.

"Why were you late?" Blaise asked, looking at him curiously.

"Lovegood stopped me in the corridor, wanted to talk about Granger." He told them.

Theo rose his eyebrows, "what about Granger?"

"Just that she thought Hermione would accept the bond."

"Well," Blaise grinned, "that's good news, isn't it?" Blaise said, throwing an arm around Draco's shoulder.

Draco shrugged him off, and looked around the classroom to see if they were alone. They were, the class having cleared out to go and get lunch, and the teacher, Draco suspected, doing the same.

"You alright?" Blaise asked, confused.

"Aren't you going to ask _how_ Lovegood knew that I'm a veela, and that there was a bond that Hermione had to accept?"

"Granger told her?" Theo guessed.

"Wrong." Draco stated, "she overheard you two absolute idiots talking about it!"

"Fuck." "Shit." The two boys spoke at the same time.

"She also heard _you_ ," Draco said, addressing Theo, "say Granger has a nice arse."

"Oh, bloody hell," groaned Theo, "you're not about to go all angry veela on me, are you?"

"No, I should, though. I know you're not a threat, however."

Theo sighed in relief, "good, you're bloody scary like that."

"Agreed." Said Blaise.

"You can't just be discussing the gene like that, especially when there's the possibility of being heard by someone. We're lucky that it was just one of Granger's friends! Imagine if it had been one of the Greengrass sisters, or Lavender Brown. The whole school would know within the hour."

"Sorry, mate," Blaise said, "I don't know how she even heard, we were quiet, and I didn't see anyone around."

"Blaise, it's Lovegood, she was probably doing some weird shit, like she usually is." Theo replied, "we _are_ sorry though, won't happen again."

Draco nodded in acceptance of their apology, before a large grin graced his face.

"What are you smiling about?" Blaise asked, confused, again.

"Stop it," Theo said, "it's creepy!"

Draco decided to _not_ be offended by being told his smile was creepy, and instead focused on what he was about to tell Blaise.

"Blaise, my friend. Lovegood wanted me to tell you that she thinks that you have a very nice arse."

Theo instantly burst into laughter, Draco following quickly after. The laughter went on for a minute or so, before the boys looked up at their friend, expecting to see a look of disgust on his face. However, they were surprised when they saw a self-satisfied grin.

"Tell her I said thanks," Blaise said, "oh, and that her arse is very pleasing to look at, too."

Blaise swaggered out of the room, the smile not leaving his face, and Theo turned to Draco.

"What the fuck is going on? First you and Granger, then Pansy and Weasley, and now Blaise is saying Looney Lovegood has a nice bum!"

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Hermione was running late for patrols, she had been tired and decided to take a nap after classes, and woken up late. By the time she arrived, she was 40 minutes late, and definitely not expecting him to still be there, waiting for her. But he was, he was pacing back and forth, looking very frustrated.

"Merlin, Draco! I'm _so_ sorry that I'm late!" she apologised.

He turned around at the sound of her voice and breathed a sigh of relief, before walking up to her and pulling her into his arms. "I thought you weren't coming, or something had happened, or you were angry at me, or-"

Hermione cut him off, "no, I was tired after classes, I overslept," she pulled herself out of his arms, "I really _am_ sorry."

He frowned when she mentioned being tired, "it's fine, Hermione. If you're tired, go back to your dorm room and go to sleep, I can patrol alone, tonight."

"No, no, I'm all re-charged, promise. Plus, I'm Head Girl, I'm not going to shrug off my duties. Let's go." She said, beginning to walk.

He caught up with her, "are you completely sure? I honestly wouldn't mind." He didn't want his mate being anything less than one hundred percent healthy.

"Draco, I am _absolutely_ fine! Let's patrol."

"Okay…" he said, hesitantly.

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Patrols had nearly finished, when Luna Lovegood came skipping down the corridor, her hair messy and a grin on her face.

"Luna!" Hermione said, "you're out of bed after hours, I'm going to have to take 10 points from Ravenclaw, I'm sorry."

"That's quite alright, Hermione. 10 points for the best snogging session I've ever had seems like a reasonable trade. I'll just be off to bed." She smiled, and carried on skipping past them.

Before either of them could react, Blaise Zabini walked from the same direction Luna had been coming from, that satisfied smirk still plastered on his face, "evening, Granger, Draco. 10 points from Slytherin, I take it?"

"Um, yes," Hermione replied.

Blaise nodded, "best be off, then," he said, walking past them, intent in getting back to the dungeons.

"What- I… Luna… and Zabini?" Hermione stuttered, shocked and confused.

"Apparently so," Draco drawled, a smirk on his face.

"Oh…"

Draco chuckled at her reaction, "come on, you. I'll walk you back to the Gryffindor Tower."

When she didn't reply or follow after him, Draco turned around, "what is it?"

"I was… I was wondering if you might like to stay in the Room of Requirement tonight? With me. Like last time." She asked, softly.

When he didn't reply straight away, she carried on talking, "it's just… it's a Friday, you see. So, there are no classes. Plus, I really liked the library, and this time we could ask for a bed. Beds, I mean, as in plural. Two of them," Hermione stopped, closed her eyes, and then started again, "I'm rambling, sorry. You don't have to, I just thought-"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"Yes I want to, let's go," he grinned, taking her hand in his and leading her to the Room of Requirement.

Hermione laughed as he eagerly pulled her along, "slow down, will you?"

"Want to get there!" He chuckled back, "and be quiet, were out of bed after hours!"

"I'm Head Girl, Draco, and you're a prefect."

Draco rolled his eyes, and thought about how lucky he was to have her as a mate. Sure, there were plenty of girls that would have accepted him the minute he had told them that she was his mate, simply because he was a Malfoy, he was rich and good-looking. But that wasn't what he wanted. He looked at Hermione as she laughed and walked quickly alongside him. _She_ was what he wanted.

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Review, please! Xx


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

Updates on have been weird lately, as everyone probably knows, so I've been holding back on posting chapters. I'm pretty sure that it is fixed now, so I'm good to post. :) Thanks for being patient!

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 **Chapter 19**

When Draco and Hermione got into the Room of Requirement, the first thing Hermione looked at was the library. Draco, however, took more interest in the fact that there was _one_ bed, not _two_ , like Granger had said she wanted there to be. She had been the one who asked the room for what she wanted. Draco smirked, turned to Hermione and chuckled.

At his chuckle, Hermione looked away from the library the room had provided them with, and looked at Draco instead, "what?" She said, suspicious of the smirk he was wearing, "what _are_ you smirking at?"

"You said you wanted _two_ beds, yeah? Two, as in plural?" He asked, the smirk not leaving his face.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "yes, Draco. I want two beds, and there is no doubt that that is what the room has given me, you see, it knows what you require, and provides it for you."

Draco nodded, the smirk on his face becoming wider, "I know, Granger."

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows, "then why are you asking me that?"

"Well," he drawled, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his side, gently, "it seems that what you wanted, is one bed."

She spluttered, pushing him away, "I-I do not! Where are they? I'll show you!"

Draco allowed her to pull away from his embrace, and stepped back, letting the view of the bed come into her line of vision, "there it is. One bed."

Hermione shook her head, and pushed past Draco, stomping up to the bed. "No," she said, "there must be another one around here, somewhere. I asked the room for two beds, not one." As she was saying this, she was looking frantically around the room for the other bed, and Draco was stood not too far away, arms crossed, watching her with that smirk on his face.

Hermione span around, marching up to Draco and grabbing his hand, "well, come on! Don't just _stand_ there, help me look!"

Draco allowed his mate to pull him along behind her until they got to the bed, which in his opinion, was definitely big enough for two, and looked extremely comfortable. He pulled his hand out of hers, and sat down on the bed, watching her. "Granger, there is one bed."

"No."

"Look," he started, "I know that you don't like to be wrong, but you are. There is one bed. You can see it, I can see it, hell, the room can see it!"

Hermione huffed, walking toward him, and mumbled, "I asked the room for two. I did!"

"Alright, you asked it for two. But that is clearly not what you wanted," he grinned. His veela was happy that his mate wanted to share a bed with him, he wasn't getting his hopes up, but he thought Looney Lovegood might just be right about her accepting him.

Draco gently grabbed her wrist when she was within reach, and pulled her so she was stood in between his legs, and he moved his hands so they rest on the backs of her lower thighs. "Don't like being wrong, do you?" He teased.

Hermione huffed, again, and slapped Draco lightly on the shoulder, "be quiet, you," she said, "oh, and don't get used to it. It's not a common occurrence."

"Are you sure?" He asked, enjoying teasing her, "I can imagine your stubbornness being a factor in making you wrong, sometimes."

"Stop!" She exclaimed, a smile on her face, and raising her hand to lightly whack his shoulder again. However, before she could deliver the hit, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her down onto the bed next to him, before climbing over her and trapping her underneath him.

Hermione gasped, looking up into his eyes. She hadn't been expecting that! "What are you doing?" She breathed.

"Kissing you," he said, although it came out as more of a question. He waited for her nod of acceptance, before bringing his lips down to meet hers.

Hermione ran her hands through his hair and marveled at how soft and silky his hair was. She was almost jealous! When he pulled away, knowing that they both needed air, Hermione began kissing down his neck, leaving small love bites. When she kissed a particular spot, just under his ear, he let out a small groan, and she laughed quietly, "witch," he groaned, causing her to laugh again. She moved her hands from his hair to his face, and pulled his face down so their lips could meet again.

After around 5 minutes had passed, he felt her small hands on his own, where they were holding her hips. He presumed she was trying to get him to stop, so he started to remove his hands, but stopped at her small whisper, "no."

He looked at her and cocked his head to the side in confusion, "what?"

He let her guide one of his hands with her own, and was shocked when she put it under her skirt, his fingers grazing the tops of her soft thighs, and put her own hands on his back, her eyes not breaking eye contact with his own.

"Granger? What?" He said, starting to pull his hand away, but stopped when her hand shot down and held his there.

"I want to," she told him, in a soft voice.

"No, you don't. It's the pheromones, remember?" He said, using his hand that wasn't being held between her legs to stroke some hair out of her face.

Hermione shook her head, "it's not. I promise, _I_ want to." She was happy that he was being considerate of her, but she did want to, and it was frustrating that he wouldn't.

Draco frowned, "how do I know that, though?" He was in a difficult place right now, his mate was asking him for his touch, which his veela was ecstatic about, but he didn't want to give it to her if it meant that she wasn't acting out of her own choice, and would regret it later on.

"I don't know," she whispered, "I'm not currently jumping you, like last time, so that might be an indicator," she told him, "plus, I don't want us to have sex, just to… you know," she smiled, her cheeks flushing red.

Draco didn't say anything, just bit the inside of his cheek, but she could see that he was considering it, she could see that he _wanted_ it, too. "You've been taking your potion, too, haven't you?" she asked, and at his nod, she carried on, "good, so it's not like your veela is going to be in control and make me do anything that I am not comfortable with doing," she smiled, and slowly moved her hand from his and brought it up to his face, cupping his cheek. He sighed, and leant into her touch, "I want to," she repeated.

"Are you _sure_?" he said.

"I'm sure."

At that, she brought her face up to kiss him again, as his hand stroked the tops of her thighs, moving closer to the top.

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Hermione was sat at the Gryffindor table, eating her breakfast and stealing glances at the veela who sat across the hall from her. She smiled to herself, that had been her first… well… sexual experience, and he had been so wonderful and considerate. She wanted to tell someone about it, but she didn't know who, Luna she considered, but ultimately decided that the Ravenclaw's bluntness would just embarrass her, so decided not to tell Luna. Harry and Ronald were off the table for obvious reasons, and she hadn't been very close with Ginny this year.

Hermione was snapped out of her musings by the owls flying into the Great Hall and delivering letters and parcels to the students. A letter landed in front of Hermione, and when she inspected it, she quickly discovered that it was from her mum, she could tell by the handwriting.

She smiled, and ripped the envelope open, intent on reading it.

 _Hermione,_

 _Your Dad and I both hope you're well, and that your time as Head Girl is exactly what you had hoped it would be. We're doing well, and business is thriving! Your Dad has the funniest story to tell you about a young boy who came in for an appointment last week. I won't spoil it by telling you it, but I will say it had me in tears!_

 _I'm sure you're wondering why I'm writing, so I'll just get straight to it. We received a letter from a Narcissa, telling us the most strangely wonderful thing! That this boy you're bringing home for Christmas isn't just a friend, like you had implied, but your boyfriend! Your Dad and I had wondered when you would start becoming interested in boys!_

 _Narcissa was able to pull some strings, and we're all having dinner at our house in two weeks' time, instead of in the Christmas Holidays. You won't have to miss any school, so don't worry, you'll just be coming home for a few hours. Naricssa says that she'll get you and her son from Hogwarts to here, and I must say, I am looking forward to meeting the boy that has captured your interest, and his family._

 _See you soon!_

 _Love, Mum xx_

Hermione groaned after reading the letter, she had wanted to prepare her parents for meeting Draco! They knew who he was, and how he had treated her, and definitely didn't like him for it. She hadn't told her parents who the boy was, and it seemed that Narcissa hadn't either.

Merlin, thought Hermione, what am I going to do?

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It was a Saturday, which just added to Draco's incredibly good mood. He sat down next to Pansy at the Slytherin table, with Blaise and Theo across from him. "Morning, everyone," he said, cheerfully.

His three friends all exchanged looks with each other, puzzled by his unnaturally good mood, especially for a morning.

"Why are you so happy?" Theo asked, confused.

"What reason do I have not to be happy?" Draco said, grabbing a bit of toast and putting it on his plate.

Pansy gasped, stood up and grabbed Draco's head, turning it to the side to inspect what she had thought she had just seen.

"Parkinson!" Draco hissed, "what are you doing?" He scrambled out of her hold and scowled at her.

She sat back down, smirking, "Draco has a hickey!"

Both of his male friends grinned.

"Ah," Theo said, " _that's_ why you're so happy. Granger finally let you touch her, did she?"

Draco smirked, but didn't answer, instead shoving a bit of toast in his mouth.

Draco heard someone approach him from behind and turned to see his mate looking down at him, a not too happy look on her face. She didn't say anything, just handed him a letter to read, which he did straight away."

" _Two_ weeks?" he exclaimed, "I have two weeks?"

Hermione nodded, and Draco cursed his meddling mother. How in Merlin's name did she even get hold of Granger's parents address?

"Fuck."

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Revieeeeeew ;)


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

I know I haven't updated in months, and I'm soooo sorry for that! I've been so busy! I'm not sure how regular the updates will be from now on, but I'll try and make them more often than I have been.

 **Chapter Twenty**

Hermione huffed out a breath of air and put her hand on Draco's leg to still it, "will you stop that?" she mumbled, rolling her eyes, "you need to relax. What's the worst that could happen?"

Draco's eyes shot from Hermione's hand on his leg up to her face, "the worst that could happen?" he repeated, "well, love, your family could hate me, which I have no doubt that they do considering our history, resulting in you rejecting me!" he said, his voice raising slightly as he mentioned her rejection.

"I'm not going to reject you if my parents hate you, Draco."

"You say that now," he said back to her quietly, placing his hand over hers which still lay on his leg, and rubbing his thumb in slow circles.

Hermione went to reply, but was cut off by Narcissa coming into the room, "well, we're ready to go. Professor Dumbledore has given us permission to use the floo in his office. You must both be back by 6pm," she told them, smoothing down her dress robes, "your father is in the office waiting, Draco, hurry along!"

"and there's no way that this can be postponed?" Draco asked, frowning, "how about next February? The 31st, perhaps?"

"Real original, Malfoy," Hermione snapped, not amused, "we're going. I met your parents, so you can meet mine!" She pulled her hand from under his where it lay on his leg, stood up and briskly walked away from her veela, knowing that he would follow after her.

Narcissa raised her eyebrows at her son, to which he replied, "don't, Mother," and quickly followed after his mate.

"I wasn't going to say anything!" She called after him, smirking.

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Hermione walked up the driveway which led to her childhood home with the three Malfoy's following behind her. If someone had told her she would be leading these particular people to officially meet her parents a year ago, she would've most likely had them admitted to St. Mungos.

Just as they reached the door, it swung open revealing Helen Granger.

"Hermione, darling! We've missed you ever so much!" She cried, grabbing her daughter and embracing her, "oh, Richard! Just look at her!"

A chuckle sounded from behind Helen, "you saw her a few months ago," he said, watching in amusement as his only child tried to pry herself away from the hold her mother had on her. "Hello, angel," he said, smiling softly at the sight of his daughter and her mumbled reply, "Hi, Dad! Mum, get off!"

He was so happy to see her that he almost forgot the reason for her visit, until he heard a cough coming from behind her and was reminded, the smile slipping from his face and being replaced with a scowl.

"Oh, sorry!" Helen said, finally releasing Hermione, much to her relief, "come in, come in," she said to the three guests, "Hermione, take your friend and his parents into the living room, your Father and I will fetch some tea. How many sugars?" she asked in a rush.

Narcissa smiled charmingly, "one for both Lucius and I, and 3 for Draco here. He has a bit of a sweet tooth."

Helen nodded, smiling at the other women, "come along, Richard."

"I do wish you would remember I'm not a dog, Helen," Richard replied, the scowl not having left his face since he spotted the blonde boy that had caught the interest of his baby girl.

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"Here you go," Helen said, smiling and passing the last cup of tea to Lucius, who took it and smiled slightly, although it looked like more of a grimace.

"Thank you."

Helen took a seat next to her husband, and looked across to where Hermione sat. She watched as Hermione turned her head and looked at Draco, smiling at him before placing her hand on his bouncing knee. She supposed she was trying to calm his nerves. She couldn't blame the boy for being nervous, Richard had a pretty intimidating glare, one Hermione herself had inherited from him.

"Hermione," Richard called, breaking the silence and gaining the attention of the occupants in the room. "How is it you and Draco got to know each other?"

"Oh, um," she looked to the boy in question, "we were assigned a project together in potions," she told him, she wasn't sure if she should tell her parents about Draco being a veela, and what her being his mate meant for her. She didn't think they'd understand, and would see it as her choice being taken away.

"Hmmm," her Dad replied, before turning to look at Draco, "and what, exactly, are your intentions with my daughter, Draco? I hope you don't mean to just bed her, because magic or not, I will destroy you if you hurt her."

Narcissa gasped, and swatted Lucius' arm as she heard him chuckle quietly from beside her.

"Dad!" "Richard, honestly!"

"I am so sorry, Draco. Excuse his rudeness, Hermione is our only baby… He is protective," Helen said, glaring at her husband.

"Right. That's ok, erm. I'm not going to," Draco paused, looking to his parents before looking Hermione's father in the eye, "my intentions aren't to hurt her, and are completely innocent. I give you my word, Sir."

Richard held eye contact with Draco for several seconds, before nodding his head, "I should hope so."

"So, lunch?" Hermione asked her mother, a smile of relief on her face as she gave Draco's hand a squeeze.

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"Well, it's 5:30pm, we better be getting these two back to Hogwarts," Narcissa said, "thank you ever so much for having us all for lunch. It's been delightful."

Helen nodded, standing up as everyone else did to walk them to the door and say goodbye to Hermione.

"That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Hermione asked as Draco held out her coat for her and she slipped her arms in, "despite my Dad threatening to destroy you, I'd say it went pretty well," she grinned teasingly.

"I thought he was going to hurt me," he whispered into her ear, "did you see the way he was looking at me?" he laughed.

Hermione was about to reply, but stopped when she heard her name being called, "come say goodbye to your parents, Hermione," her Dad said, holding his arms out as she jogged over and gave them both a hug goodbye.

"Thank you again for lunch. Your cooking is wonderful, Helen," Lucius complimented, causing Helen to beam and three pairs of eyebrows to shoot up. "I understand that Hermione is coming to stay with us at the Malfoy Manor over the Christmas holidays?"

"Yes, that's ri-" Richard was cut off by his wife, "did you say Malfoy? As in Draco Malfoy?" Helen's jaw clenched as she looked at the blonde boy who had followed after her daughter and currently had his arms wrapped around her.

Draco froze, and Hermione turned to look at the two elder Malfoy's, who both had looks of surprise on their faces.

"The Draco Malfoy who has had my little girl in tears countless times since starting Hogwarts? Who has bullied her mercilessly since she entered that world?" Helen's anger rose as she stared at the teenage boy, "get your hands off of my daughter. Right now."

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Reviews will make the updates come faster ;)


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer:** The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it's purely for fun.

 **Chapter Twenty-One**

"I told you to take your hands away from Hermione," Helen said, her voice low.

Draco marvelled at how Hermione did the same thing when she was angry sometimes. Didn't shout, didn't scream. Simply lowered her voice and gave you _the look_. The look that implied unspeakable things would happen if you didn't do as they said. Helen, however, did not have a wand nor the ability to use magic like Hermione did, and that was his reasoning for not moving away from his mate, like her mother ordered. After all, thought Draco, how much harm could a _muggle_ cause?

"Mum…" Hermione said slowly, about to explain that she and Draco had had this conversation, and were seeing how things went, before she was interrupted by Draco clearing his throat beside her, causing her head to turn.

"Mrs. Granger," he began, "I know Hermione and I don't share the best history, and I haven't been the… kindest to her, but surely you know Hermione is smart enough to make her own decisions about who she spends her time with?"

Helen's eyes narrowed, "she is my daughter, and I want you away from her now. I want you to stay away from her. I want all three of you out of my house, now!" she exclaimed, addressing the Malfoys. "Richard, get them out. Hermione, come here!"

Draco looked down at Hermione, who was staring at her mother, looking conflicted. She looked up and met his gaze, before gently pulling away from him and beginning to walk towards her parents. Panic settled over Draco as him as he realised he was in severe danger of losing her if this wasn't fixed. He looked to his own parents for some idea of what to do, but for once, they looked as lost as he was.

He could feel his veela becoming more and more agitated, as he looked at the older women and sneered, "you're a _muggle_ ," the disgust evident in his voice, "do you really think you could stop me from taking her?"

He heard Hermione's quick intake of breath and his mother admonishing him, and as what he had said settled over him all he could think was, _fuck_.

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Hermione walked over to her Mum, knowing that she'd feel much calmer if Hermione was near her, and a calm Helen Granger equalled a more reasonable Helen Granger. Hermione had learnt this pretty early on in her life.

She looked to her Dad, who stood with his arm around his wife, as if to hold her back. Hermione wouldn't have been surprised if this was the case, her Mum was feisty, to say the least. I suppose that's where I got it from, Hermione mused.

As she reached her parents, Draco spoke, "you're a _muggle_ , do you really think you could stop me from taking her?"

She gasped, and was instantly reminded of a 12-year-old Draco Malfoy sneering at her in the same way for being a _mudblood_. And what was he saying about _taking her_? She wasn't his property!

Hermione jumped to her mother's defence, "I assure you, she could stop you, Malfoy." Her face as hard as stone, she looked him dead in the eye before turning back to her Mum and Dad, "I'm sorry for arranging this, it appears I made a colossal mistake in believing that anything had changed. I need to go, we have a curfew," and with that, she hugged her parent's goodbye, and walked out the door, leaving a dumbfounded veela and two sets of very confused parents in her wake.

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"Staring at her as she eats her breakfast isn't going to make Hermione talk to you, you know," Pansy said, lifting an eyebrow and biting into a piece of toast as she reminded Draco of something she had been repeatedly telling him since Hermione and Draco got back from the disastrous dinner that had taken place a week ago.

"She won't talk to him, even in lessons. Snape gave her a detention because she refused to work with him in potions. She's very determined to give him the silent treatment," Blaise remarked.

"Can't say I blame her," Theo added, "what he said would've brought any doubts and insecurities she had about his opinions on blood status right to the surface. She obviously thinks that they've not changed."

"Will you three _stop_ discussing me as if I'm not here?" Draco hissed, not taking his eyes off his mate across the hall. He perked up as she began packing her bags, and stood up to follow her out as she left. He walked five steps before back around to face his friends, "blood means _nothing_ to me, what I said was… stupid. My opinions have completely changed."

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Hermione sighed as she heard footsteps running behind her, and a certain Slytherin call out her name, "Hermione!"

She slowed her steps, deciding to just get this talk out of the way. It was exhausting avoiding him, and she'd already received a detention from Snape for refusing to work with him.

She turned around to face him as he came to a stop in front of her and gave her a hesitant smile. Her face, however, remained emotionless as she stared at him, lifting an eyebrow, "what?"

The smile faded from his face as he brought a hand up and ran it through his hair. "Can we talk, please?"

"We are."

"Right. You want to talk here?" When she didn't answer, and just stared at him in response, he continued, "I just… I want to apologise. I know what I said to your Mum was out of line, and I didn't mean it. I know she's probably just as scary as you when she's angry."

"Why are you apologising?" Hermione asked.

"What? I'm apologising because-"

Hermione cut him off, "because I'm your mate and you need me to be happy with you so I'll accept you and you won't die."

"No!" Draco said immediately, "I'm saying sorry because I know I hurt you with what I said. I just- My veela was becoming agitated and then you walked away from me and I didn't know what to do. I don't know what to do! You've not spoken to me in a week, which is making my Veela even more uncontrollable than usual. Not that I'm blaming you, because you have the right to be angry, but I miss you, and I don't know what to do other than tell you how sorry I am, and that I don't think like that. Not anymore."

"You don't think that my parents are inferior because they don't have magic?" Hermione asked.

"No, I don't. I swear."

"Well that was what you implied, Malfoy."

"I know. I- I'm just sorry."

Hermione sighed, her mask slipping, "you've said that. What you said just took me back to when you'd look at _me_ in disgust and call me a mudblood. It hurt me, Draco. Not only did you completely disrespect my mother, but you hurt me. Again."

Draco dropped to his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her upper thighs as he rested his head on her stomach. His veela was demanding that he make her feel better. "Tell me what I can do to fix this."

Hermione looked down at the blonde boy knelt at her feet, "I don't know if you can."

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A/N an update! Sorry it's been so long. Been very busy! Review xoxox


	22. Chapter 22

I am so so so so sorry its been so long since I updated! Nearly a whole year! x

Disclaimer: The Wizarding World and all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am making no money from this, it is purely for fun.

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Chapter Twenty-Two

Hermione felt Draco tremble at her words, before he slowly stood up and took a step back from her.

"You really mean that," he said. A statement, not a question, but Hermione nodded her head anyway.

What did he expect? Not only had he disrespected her Mother, something that wouldn't go well for a normal potential boyfriend, but he had confirmed that nagging voice that had been in the back of her mind since they began their, for lack of a better word, relationship, that told her that he still thought of her as the inferior mudblood that he had always claimed her to be and had only changed his attitude to stay alive. Hermione knew that part of him did care for her, but that part was the Veela in him, not the real Draco Malfoy.

Draco closed his eyes, breathing deeply. To control the more animalistic part of him that tended to come out when something happened that his Veela didn't like, Hermione presumed. "Granger, I swear to you, I will do whatever I can to fix this. You mean," he paused, searching for the right words to say, "you're everything to me. I can't even begin to explain how sorry I am. Not only for hurting you, but for implying that your Mother's lack of magic makes her inferior to me. I was scared, and I reacted by lashing out. Anyone that played a part in bringing you into the world and raising you has my respect and gratitude."

Hermione didn't say anything, what could she say? She didn't know if she could believe him. Her eyes snapped up when she sensed him moving closer, and before she could move away, he had her head cradled in his hands, bringing his lips to her forehead, he laid a gentle kiss there before breathing in her scent and pulling back abruptly. "I'll fix this, I promise," he claimed, before turning away and heading down to the dungeons.

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Draco laid in his bed in the Slytherin dungeons that night, thinking about his mate tucked away from him up in the Gryffindor tower. Now that Granger was unsure of him again, and it was looking as if she might reject him, his Veela, and him, were pining for her more than usual. He thought of her every moment, and despite the fact that they were in the same castle, he felt as if he were a thousand miles away from her.

He struggled to sleep, but sometimes, if he concentrated hard enough, he could sense Hermione when he guard was down, and she was asleep. He took comfort in that. She was okay, at least physically.

Draco turned over and sighed, he really needed to come up with a way of showing Granger how sorry he was. That he didn't just want her because Veela biology had chosen her to be his mate. He needed to show her that her blood meant nothing to him.

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A week later, Hermione walked into the Great Hall with Harry and Ron. Although, her attention was on the book that she was currently devouring. Although she had read Pride and Prejudice several times already, her love for the characters and the story always had her coming back for more. She smiled as she read, and she thought to herself that she would quite like her own Mr. Darcy. She ignored the fact that Draco popped into her mind.

She sat down at the table, not even looking at her breakfast, too enraptured by her book, when she felt an arm being thrown around her shoulder. "Mione," Ron said through a mouthful of food, "you gonna put that book down and eat something?" he asked.

Hermione pursed her lips and shrugged his arm off her, "Ronald, I would appreciate not seeing your chewed up food," she heard Harry laugh, but ignored him, "and to answer your question, yes. Once I have finished this chapter," she told him, turning back to her book.

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Draco watched his mate intently as she walked into the Great Hall, nose buried in a book, as usual. He grinned as he watched a smile grace her pretty face at something she had read. Hopefully he'd be seeing some more of those, he thought.

He felt his Veela rise to the surface as he watched Weasley fling an arm around her shoulder, but was able to calm himself down. Weasley was with Pansy, and was no longer a threat. Hermione didn't want him. She made that much clear during their last meeting in the Room of Requirement. As he thought of their last rendezvous, he felt Blaise nudge him, and turned to him, eyebrows raised.

"You're smiling that… creepy smile and your eyes are silver again, mate," Blaise informed him.

He was about to reply, when he saw the morning owls swoop in, delivering post from home. His gaze switched back to Granger, and he watched as a letter landed in front of her. He didn't take his eyes off her as she read the letter, waiting nervously for her reaction.

Her eyes raised up to meet his from across the hall, and his heart skipped a beat. She gestured for him to meet her outside, and he was on his feet before he knew it, leaving a half eaten slice of toast and an untouched cup of tea. He hoped this was good news.

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Hermione placed her book down gently as the owl dropped a letter in front of her. She bit her lip as she saw the handwriting. That was her Mum's writing, without a doubt. She had written to her Mum since the altercation with the Malfoy's, but it hadn't been outright spoken about. She had a feeling this was about to change.

Hermione hesitantly opened up the letter and began to read.

Hermione,

As you without a doubt know, the dinner we had with your boyfriend Draco and his parents really needs to be addressed. To begin with, I was angry and adamant that he stays away from you. You're my little girl and all I want is to protect you from anyone or anything that may hurt you, and that boy has had you in tears more times that I would like! However, I know that I can be rash and stubborn. Traits that you inherited from me, I'm sorry to say. That is why I wanted to write to you to say that I trust you to make your own decisions regarding this boy and your relationship. You're an intelligent young woman, and an excellent judge of character, so if you believe Draco to be worth spending your time with, then please do not allow your stubbornness and pride (yes, pride, darling. That is something you get from your Dad!) to stop you from doing so.

The reason that I have had this change of heart about Draco Malfoy is that he visited us over the weekend. To say he received a warm welcome would be a lie. However, he did explain to us your situation and gave us some books to read about the Veela. You're soulmates, Hermione! You know I've always been a romantic, and if these books are correct then Draco is made for you, he's biologically pre-dispositioned to make you happy. What more can a mother want for her daughter?

Please think about your options and know that your Father and I will support you in whatever you decide to do. We both love you more than you will ever know.

Mum xx

Draco had visited her parents, even after the display that her Mum had put on the last time they met? This… this could change things, Hermione thought, looking up and staring into the silver eyes of the Veela she was destined for. But did he think that a visit to her parents was going to make her trust him again?

I suppose I should talk to him, she mused. Nodding her head toward the door and packing up her bags, she prepared for what she had to tell him.

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review plsssss x x x


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